Emanuel Schikaneder

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Emanuel Schikaneder (Straubing, September 9, 1751 – September 21, 1812, Vienna), born Johann Joseph Schikaneder, was a German impresario, dramatist, actor, and singer. He is famous as the librettist of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera "Die Zauberflöte" (The Magic Flute).

Schikaneder first appeared with the theatrical troupe of F. J. Moser around 1773. Aside from operas, the company also performed farces and Singspiele (operettas). Schikander married an actress in this company, Eleonore Arth, in 1777, the same year he performed the role of Hamlet in Munich to general acclaim. He became the director of his troupe in 1778. He met Mozart in Salzburg in 1780, during an extended stay there by his company.

Schikaneder performed at the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna from 1785, while still working with the Salzburg group as time permitted. His plan to build a theatre in Vienna was vetoed by Emperor Joseph II, which prompted him to temporarily leave for Regensburg. He did return to Vienna after a time with plans for a new theater in the Freihaus auf der Wieden outside the city, which was opened in July 1789.

[edit] Die Zauberflöte

The new theater enjoyed immediate success, especially with the September 1791 premiere of the Singspiel "Die Zauberflöte", with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was Schikaneder's and incorporated a loose mixture of Masonic elements and traditional fairy-tale themes. Schikaneder was one of the performers in the first production, taking the role of Papageno.

Schikaneder also may have given advice to Mozart concerning the musical setting of his libretto. The dramatist Ignaz Franz Castelli tells the following tale:

"The late bass singer Sebastian Meyer told me that Mozart had originally written the duet where Papageno and Papagena first see each other quite differently from the way in which we now hear it. Both originally cried out "Papageno!", "Papagena!" a few times in amazement. But when Schikaneder heard this, he called down in to the orchestra, "Hey, Mozart! That's no good, the music must express greater astonishment. They must both stare dumbly at each other, then Papageno must begin to stammer: 'Pa-papapa-pa-pa'; Papagena must repeat that until both of them finally get the whole name out". Mozart followed the advice, and in this form the duet always had to be repeated."

Castelli adds that the March of the Priests which opens the second act was also a suggestion of Schikaneder's, added to the opera at the last minute by Mozart. A caution concerning these tales is that, according to records, Sebastian Meyer was not employed by the Schikaneder troupe until 1793, two years after the premiere of Die Zauberflöte.

[edit] Later career

The success of Die Zauberflöte and other productions allowed Schikaneder to construct a new theatre in Vienna in 1801, making use of an Imperial license he had obtained 15 years earlier. This theater, the Theater an der Wien, was opened to a performance of the opera "Alexander", to Schikaneder's own libretto with music by Franz Teyber. According to the New Grove, the Theater an der Wien was "the most lavishly equipped and one of the largest theatres of its age". However, Schikaneder may have overextended himself in building it, as in less than a year he had to give up ownership, though he twice served the theater as artistic director, staging elaborate productions there.

During this period, Schikaneder was an artistic associate of Ludwig van Beethoven, who for a time attempted to set Schikaneder's libretto Vestas Feuer ("Vesta's Fire") as an opera. Beethoven lived in rooms in the Theater an der Wien during this time at Schikaneder's invitation, and continued there for a while as he switched his efforts in operatic composition to his Fidelio.

In 1804, the Theater an der Wien was sold to Baron Peter von Braun who immediately dismissed his archrival. Schikaneder left Vienna to work in Brno and Steyr. His life took a catastrophic turn starting in 1811. First, after economic problems caused by war and an 1811 currency devaluation, he lost most of his fortune. Then, in 1812, during a journey to Budapest to take up a new post, Schikaneder was stricken with insanity. He died in poverty on September 21, 1812, aged 61, in Vienna.

Schikaneder wrote a total of about 55 theatre pieces and 44 libretti.

[edit] Sources

• Most of the information above is taken from the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, available in many libraries and as a fee site online.
• The stories from Ignaz Franz Castelli, originally printed in his 1861 memoirs, are taken from Otto Erich Deutsch's Mozart: A Documentary Biography; English translations by Eric Blom, Peter Branscombe, and Jeremy Noble, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1965. This book contains many mentions of Schikaneder from first-hand sources.