March of the Priests (Die Zauberflöte)

Die Zauberflöte was Mozart’s final stage work, premiered on 30 September 1791, only thirty-seven days before his death. Mozart and his librettist Emanuel Schikaneder were Freemasons, and the opera’s world is filled with mystery, initiation and symbolic patterns. The number three governs characters, temples and musical gestures; the drama’s central movement is a passage from darkness towards light through trial and enlightenment. The first performance took place at Vienna’s Theater auf der Wieden under Mozart’s direction. Its success grew rapidly: by November 1792 the opera had reached its hundredth performance. Mozart did not live to witness that triumph, but the work remains one of the most beloved creations of the operatic repertory.