Emanuel Schikaneder was born in poor circumstances at Regensburg in 1751. He was obliged as a boy to earn his living as a wandering musician, and in 1773 was so inspired by the performances of a wandering troupe of actors at Augsburg that he joined them. He afterwards married Eleonore Artim, the adopted daughter of his manager, and undertook the management. He had considerable skill and audacity, not only as an actor and singer, but also as a dramatic poet. His company visited by turns Inspruck, Laibach, Gratz,[ 20 ] Pressburg, Pesth, and Salzburg, where he had become acquainted with the Mozarts in 1780, and had suggested some compositions to Wolfgang (Vol. II., p. 102). His want of refinement in the choice of means of attraction is sufficiently proved by his having on one occasion at Salzburg, when "Agnes Bernauer" was performed, made the public announcement: "The Vidame will this day be thrown over the bridge "—which concession to the moral feelings of his audience was duly made the same evening.[ 21 ] He acquired a considerable competence, but an unlucky speculation in Pressburg ruined him. He had written a piece in which a goose played the principal part, and all the others were cocks and hens. The expenses for scenery and costumes were very great, and, as it was a complete failure, his finances were SCHIKANEDER. irretrievably injured. In November, 1784, he gained access for his company to the stage of the Karnthnerthortheater in Vienna, where he gave German operas and plays, at which the Emperor was occasionally present.[ 22 ] He appeared on April 1, 1785, in the part of Schwindel in Gluck's "Pil-grimmen von Mecca"; but attempting greater parts in serious drama, he was hissed off the stage, and in February, 1786, was forced to leave Vienna.[ 23 ] He then took the town theatre in Regensburg, and endeavoured to satisfy the taste of the populace for low comedy; but this did not last long, and in the summer of 1787 he threw up the undertaking[ 24 ] and returned to Vienna. His wife had in the meantime remained at the theatre in the "Freihause auf der Wieden,"[ 25 ] and had taken the management of it from Friedel. This now passed into Schikaneder's hands, and in these confined premises—little better than a barn—he succeeded in delighting the Viennese public with performances expressly designed to attract them, especially comic operas, of which many were highly successful.[ 26 ] What he wanted in cultivation (he could barely write or reckon) he made up for in sound mother-wit, practical experience, and knowledge of stage routine. His audacity was equal to his frivolity, and he found a way out of every dilemma. He was addicted to sensual gratification, a parasite and a spendthrift; and in spite of his large income was often hard pressed by his creditors.[ 27 ]
During one of these periods of embarrassment, in the spring of 1791[ 28 ] (May 7 is given as the date), he had recourse LABOUR AND POVERTY. to Mozart, with whom he had renewed the old acquaintance, and representing to him that he was lost unless he could produce an opera of great attractive power, he assured him that he had discovered an excellent magic subject for an opera, which Mozart was just the man to compose. Mozart's irresistible inclination for operatic composition, his natural good-nature and regard for a brother Freemason, and, as it was said, the influence of Madame Gerl, all combined to induce him to make the attempt: "If we make a fiasco, I cannot help it, for I never wrote a magic opera in my life." Schikaneder gave him the first sketch of the "Zauberflöte," and, knowing how difficult it was to bring Mozart to the point of writing, he arranged a little garden-house in the courtyard of the Freihaus for his use, so as to keep him under his own eye. Here, and in Josephsdorf, on the Kahlenberg (where his room in the casino is still shown),[ 29 ] Mozart wrote the greater part of the "Zauberflöte"; Schikaneder was at hand to discuss points of detail, to make necessary alterations, and above all to have his own part written to his mind. He had a poor bass voice, was uncultivated, but not unmusical, and could execute his songs in a dashing and effective manner. He knew perfectly in what consisted his best effects, and insisted on having simple, popular melodies, which Mozart was compliant enough to go on altering until Schikaneder was satisfied. The song "Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen," after many attempts, was, it is said, suggested by a melody hummed by Schikaneder himself. It has been remarked that the beginning is identical with the seventh and eighth lines of Scandelli's (d. 1580) chorale, "Nun lob mein Seel den Herren"—[See Page Image] is sung to the same melody[ 30 ]—a sure proof of its popularity. The duets "Bei Männern welche Liebe fühlen," and COMPOSITION OF THE "ZAUBERFLOTE." "Papageno" were repeatedly rearranged in deference to Schika-neder's wish. His want of any hesitation in the matter is proved by the following note from him, preserved by Al. Fuchs in his collection:—
Dear Wolfgang,—Herewith I return your "Pa-Pa-Pa-," which I like fairly well. It will do, at any rate. We shall meet this evening at the usual place.—Yours, E. Schikaneder.
But Schikaneder took care to keep his composer in good humour by frequent invitations to his table; where both eating and drinking were of the best, and by introductions to the jovial and free-living society in which he himself moved, and which also included A. Stadler, the man who so shamefully abused Mozart's good nature (Vol. II., p. 309). The pressure of external circumstances, of growing domestic troubles, and the bitter feeling of failure and disappointed hope, combined with his own excitable nature to cause Mozart to seek for distraction and forgetfulness in the whirl of a pleasure-loving life. His wife was at Baden, where his youngest son Wolfgang was born on July 26; her absence deprived his home life of any comfort, and drove him to take refuge among his theatrical friends. Folly and dissipation were the inevitable accompaniments of such an existence, and these soon reached the public ear, combining with the exaggerated accounts current of the loose life led by Schikaneder and his associates to cover Mozart's name for several months with an amount of obloquy beyond what he deserved (Vol. II., p. 270). While the "Zauberflöte" was in course of composition, Da Ponte, who was obliged to leave Vienna, tried to persuade Mozart to accompany him to London, and there take an active part in the production of Italian opera. Mozart turned a favourable ear to the project, but demanded a delay of six months for the completion and performance of his opera, to which Da Ponte could not agree.[ 31 ] In July, 1791, the work was so far advanced that he was able to insert the opera in his catalogue as virtually complete; the rehearsals had begun as LABOUR AND POVERTY. soon as the voices and bass parts were ready, the working-out of the instrumentation being left, as usual, to the last.
It was at this juncture that Mozart received an unexpected commission in a very singular manner.[ 32 ] A stranger, a tall, thin grave-looking man, dressed from head to foot in grey, and calculated from his very appearance to make a striking and weird impression, presented him one day with an anonymous letter begging him with many flattering allusions to his accomplishments as an artist to name his price for composing a Requiem, and the shortest time in which he could undertake to complete it. Mozart acquainted his wife with the circumstance, and assured her that it gave him great satisfaction, since he had long wished to try his powers once more on this species of composition, and to produce a work that both friends and foes might admire and study after his death. The innovations in church music introduced by the Emperor Joseph had been swept away by his successor, and the services of the Church were once more performed after the old fashion. Mozart was anxious therefore to impress upon the Emperor Leopold II., as the supreme arbiter, his familiarity with the orthodox church style, and the present seemed a favourable opportunity for the purpose. After consultation with his wife he announced his readiness to undertake the commission, but without fixing a term for its completion, and naming as his price 50 (some say 100) ducats; whereupon the messenger again appeared, paid the stipulated sum, and promised an addition on the delivery of the finished work. Mozart was enjoined to compose the Requiem according to his own will and pleasure, and to make COMMISSION FOR THE REQUIEM. no endeavour to discover his mysterious patron, an endeavour which would certainly prove in vain.
It is now proved beyond doubt that Count Franz von Wal-segg of Stuppach was the patron in question, and that he ordered the Requiem in memory of his late wife, Anna Edlen von Flammberg; the mysterious messenger was his steward Leutgeb, whose personal appearance has been described to me by Grillparzer. Count Walsegg was a zealous lover of music, a good flautist, and a moderately good violoncello-player; he had quartet parties every Tuesday and Thursday, and theatrical performances every Sunday, in which his family and retainers took active part. But he was also ambitious to figure as a composer. He used to order quartets from different composers, always anonymously and with the offer of handsome payment;[ 33 ] these he would then copy with his own hand, and have the parts written out from this score. After performance he would set the players to guess the composer; they, fully aware of the mystification, invariably flattered his weakness by guessing himself, and he with a deprecating smile would tacitly admit the imputation. This explains the mysterious origin of the Requiem. He rewrote Mozart's score, gave the parts to be copied from his duplicate (with the title of "Requiem composto del Conte Walsegg"), and himself directed the performance of it on December 14, 1793.
Before Mozart had set himself in earnest to this task, he received in the middle of August a fresh commission which brooked of no delay. A festival opera was to be performed at the approaching coronation of Leopold II. as King of Bohemia in Prague. The subject chosen was Metastasio's "Clemenza di Tito," and again it was the people of Prague who made good the deficiencies of the Viennese: the States called upon Mozart to compose the opera. For reasons which do not appear their decision was so long delayed that there remained only a few weeks for the composition and rehearsal LABOUR AND POVERTY. of the opera. After making all preliminary arrangements, Mozart set out for Prague. As he was in the act of stepping into the travelling-carriage with his wife, the mysterious messenger appeared, and touching his wife on the arm, asked how it would fare with the Requiem now. Mozart excused himself by alleging the necessity of his present journey, and the impossibility of acquainting his unknown patron with it, and promised that it should be his first work on his return if the delay were granted him; with this the messenger declared himself satisfied.
Mozart worked at his opera during the journey, making sketches in the carriage, and working them out at the inn where they stopped for the night. He must have intended the part of Sextus to be taken by a tenor, for in two sketches of the duets with Vitellia (i) and Annius (3) Sextus is a tenor, which of course necessitated a plan and treatment altogether different. He cannot have received definite instructions as to the cast of the opera until he was in Prague; but then he set to work with so much ardour that in the course of eighteen days the opera was finished and in rehearsal.[ 34 ] He called in the assistance of a young composer named Franz Süssmayr, one of his pupils, who is said to have written the secco recitatives; what makes this the more probable is the fact that in the original score there is no secco recitative at all. But the further assertion that Süssmayr composed the airs for Servilia, Annius, and Publius, and arranged the instrumentation of some other pieces,[ 35 ] is disproved by the existence of almost all the numbers in Mozart's handwriting.[ 36 ]
FIRST PERFORMANCE OF "TITUS," 1791.
The opera was performed with great magnificence[ 37 ] on September 6, the coronation day, after the banquet, before the royal family and an invited audience, in the National Theatre.[ 38 ] The cast was as follows:—[See Page Image]