March of the Priests from "Die Zauberflöte" (In 1791 Mozart was asked by his friend, Emanuel Schikenader, to provide him with a new opera, in German, for his popular opera house, Theater auf der Wieden, and to make sure that it would appeal to all classes. The opera, ‘Die Zauberflote’, was a huge box office success but not simply because Mozart was ‘written-down’. The pilot was designed on several levels, from the simple comic business of Papageno, through the tests of faithfulness and love of Tamino, to the philosophical symbolism of the Masonic movement. The score is full of sublime music, simple in appeal yet overladen with Mozart’s greatest subtlety of expression. )
Deutsch
English