Theater news:
On Thursday, October 25, 1792, Die Zauberflöte, a grand opera in two acts, was given for the first
time by the Mihule company at the National Theater in the old town. The text is by Mr. Schikaneder, and
the splendid music by the famous and eternally unforgettable composer, Wolfgang Mozart. The Director,
Mr. Mihule, together with his company, spared no effort to present this well-known, grand, splendid opera
in its true light through long rehearsal and at great expense, so it also truly received the loudest applause
from all the connoisseurs at the crowded theater, and it deserves to be sincerely praised by all.
On Sunday, October 28, 1792 will be given for the third time at 7 p.m:
Die Zauberflöte
A grand opera in 2 acts by Schikaneder that has been received with exceptional acclaim. The excellent
music is by Mozart.
Commentary
It has long been repeated in the Mozart literature that the first performance of Die Zauberflöte outside Vienna took place in Prague on 25 Oct 1792. Eibl (Addenda, 78) refers to this performance, citing Schurig (1913, vol. 2, 271). However, Schurig gives no primary source, nor does Branscombe (1991, 160–61), a standard English-language reference on the opera. The ultimate (if perhaps indirect) source for these claims is probably a report in the Prager Oberpostamtszeitung on 27 Oct 1792, the document given here. The report is transcribed by Teuber (1885, 305, our source), and again in full by Procházka (1892)—who, while citing Teuber, may have transcribed the passage independently (see Notes below).
The “Nationaltheater” (the Nostitz Theater) in Prague still survives as a functioning theater, now called The Estates Theatre (Stavovské divadlo; official website); it is the theater in which Mozart’s Don Giovanni and La clemenza di Tito were first performed, and where his Le nozze di Figaro received its first Prague performance in Dec 1786. On Wenzel Mihule’s tenure as director of the German theater and Singspiel company in the Nationaltheater, see Teuber (1885, 291–330).
More recent research has shown that the performance of Die Zauberflöte in Prague on 25 Oct 1792 was not, in fact, the earliest one outside Vienna. Currently the earliest known performance of Die Zauberflöte outside Vienna took place on 21 Sep 1792 in Lemberg (Lviv, Lwów, Lvov); see the entry for that date on this site. See also the entry for 7 Aug 1792, a report that Die Zauberflöte was in preparation by the theater in Frankfurt, although the premiere there did not take place until a year later, on 16 Aug 1793.
Notes
So far as we have been able to determine, the Prager Oberpostamtszeitung is not yet available in digital form online. We have not yet been able to consult the original ourselves, and our transcription is taken from Teuber (1885, 305). Teuber almost certainly did not preserve the line breaks of the original source, and his line breaks have not been reproduced here.
This report from the Prager Oberpostamtszeitung is also transcribed in Procházka (1892), who mentions Teuber’s discussion of the Prague performance. However, Procházka’s transcription differs in several details from Teuber’s, suggesting that Procházka may have transcribed it from the original source independently (variants are given in red):
Donnerstag als den 25. October 1792 wurde in dem altstädter Nationaltheater von der Mihule’schen Schauspielergesellschaft (zum ersten Mal) gegeben eine große Oper in 2 Aufzügen: Die Zauberflöte. Der Text ist vom Herrn Schikaneder, [und] die [vortreffliche] Musik von dem berühmten, und ewig unvergeßlichen Musikmeister Wolfgang Mozart. Herr Directeur Mihule sammt seiner Gesellschaft hat sich alle Mühe gegeben, diese allgemein bekannte große, vortreffliche Oper durch lange Uibung und mit großem Aufwande in ihrem wahren Lichte vorzustellen, wie sie auch wirklich beim vollen Schauspielhause den lautesten Beyfall aller Kenner erhielt[,] und ungeheuchelt Jedermann angerühmt zu werden verdient. Sonntags als den 28. October 1792 wird um 7 Uhe [sic] Abends zum dritten Male gegeben Die Zauberflöte. Eine mit außerordentlichem Beyfalle aufgenommene große Oper in 2 Aufzügen von Schikaneder, die vortreffliche Musik ist von Mozart.
Bibliography
Branscombe, Peter. 1991. W. A. Mozart: Die Zauberflöte. Cambridge Opera Handbooks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Procházka, Rudolph Freiherr von. 1892. “‘Die Zauberflöte’ in Prag. Zum 100jähr. Gedächtniß der ersten Aufführung am 25 October 1792.” Bohemia, no. 292, Beilage, 23 Oct 1892. (link)
Schurig, Arthur. 1913. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Sein Leben und sein Werk auf Grund der vornehmlich durch Nikolaus von Nissen gesammelten biographischen Quellen und der Ergebnisse der neuesten Forschung dargestellt. 2 vols. Leipzig: Insel-Verlag.
Teuber, Oscar. 1885. Geschichte des Prager Theaters. Von den Anfängen des Schauspielwesens bis auf die neueste Zeit. vol. 2. Von der Brunian-Bergopzoom’schen Bühnen-Reform bis zum Tode Liebich’s, des größten Prager Bühnenleiters. (1771–1817). Prague: A. Haase.
Print Citation:
Edge, Dexter. 2014. “The premiere of Die Zauberflöte in Prague (25 October 1792).” In: Mozart: New Documents, edited by Dexter Edge and David Black. First published 7 December 2014. https://www.mozartdocuments.org/documents/25-october-1792/
Web Citation:
Edge, Dexter. 2014. “The premiere of Die Zauberflöte in Prague (25 October 1792).” In: Mozart: New Documents, edited by Dexter Edge and David Black. First published 7 December 2014. [direct link]
