Emanuel Schikaneder

Emanuel Schikaneder was an actor, singer, director and poet, among other things. He had been travelling around Europe as an actor since his twenties. In Salzburg in 1780, he enjoyed his first successes as a librettist and director. It was also there that he made the acquaintance of Leopold Mozart and his son Wolfgang. Schikaneder and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart met again in Vienna in 1789. In 1791, Schikaneder wrote the libretto for The Magic Flute, to which Mozart then contributed the music. Schikaneder himself played the first Papageno.