' (German for ''The Philosopher's Stone, or the Enchanted Isle'') is a two-act singspiel jointly composed by Johann Baptist Henneberg, Benedikt Schack, Franz Xaver Gerl, Emanuel Schikaneder, and

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

in 1790. The libretto was written by Schikaneder.

Composition

''Der Stein der Weisen'' was composed using a "team approach" in which each composer contributed individual sections of the piece. All five wrote parts of act 2, and all except Mozart wrote parts of act 1. Henneberg composed the work's overture. Schikaneder wrote the libretto for the entire piece. The text is based on a fairy tale from Christoph Martin Wieland's ', published in the late 1780s. All five were later involved in ''

The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a '' Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that in ...

'': Mozart as composer, Schikaneder as librettist, impresario and performer (Papageno), Henneberg as conductor, and Schack and Gerl as performers (respectively Tamino and Sarastro). ''Der Stein der Weisen'' may have provided a model for that work, as the two have a similar structure and source.

Reception and study

The work was initially popular, but was largely absent from the standard repertoire for the two centuries after 1814. American musicologist David Buch announced the discovery of a Viennese score with attributions to all five composers. This was taken by some to indicate that ''Der Stein der Weisen'' was a previously unknown Mozart work, although in fact only a duet ("Nun, liebes Weibchen", known as the "cat duet") and two sections of the act 2 finale were attributed to him. The autograph of "Nun, liebes Weibchen" ( K. 625/592a) is held by the

Bibliothèque Nationale A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...

in Paris; the rest of the original score is lost. The work is known from a ca. 1795 copy.

Performances

The singspiel was premiered on 11 September 1790 in the

Theater auf der Wieden The Theater auf der Wieden, also called the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden or the Wiednertheater, was a theater located in the then-suburban Wieden district of Vienna in the late 18th century. It existed for only 14 years (1787–1801), but duri ...

, conducted by Henneberg. It was first recorded by the

Boston Baroque Boston Baroque is the oldest period instrument orchestra in North America. It was founded in 1973 by the American harpsichordist and conductor, Martin Pearlman, to present concerts of the Baroque and Classical repertoire on period instruments, dr ...

in 1999. Modern performances were mounted at the Hampstead & Highgate Festival, Augsburg Opera and Pepperdine University in 2001, by Bampton Classical Opera in 2002, by Combattimento Consort Amsterdam in 2003, the Astoria Music Festival, Garsington Opera and Salzburg's Haus für Mozart in 2006, Opernhaus Zürich (at the Stadttheater Winterthur) in 2010, and the Tiroler Landestheater in Innsbruck in 2018.

References

External links

* * *, Piotr Micinski (bass), Renate Arends (soprano), , conducting {{DEFAULTSORT:Stein der Weisen, Der Singspiele German-language operas 1790 operas Operas by multiple composers Arias by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Operas Adaptations of works by Christoph Martin Wieland