As remarkable as the quality of the compositions themselves is the astonishing rapidity with which Mozart composed his last two great operas, “Die Zauberflöte”, K.620, and “La clemenza di Tito”, K.621: From first sketches and drafts to finished products, some 800 pages of music penned within the six-month period from April to September 1791.
Opinions of the work at the time of its première are as varied as the history of its reception. As a “coronation” opera it initially lent itself to court festivities everywhere, and because of its aspect of “clemency”, to charitable events. It survived in its own right as opera seria through the first two decades of the 19th century, then, but for occasional performances (these sometimes with altered or added texts), fell into obscurity for the next 150 years.
