Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Standard opera repertoire, the operas you are most likely to see, begin with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791).  Mozart lived most of his life in Austria, first Salzburg and later Vienna.  He was a famous child prodigy who spent his childhood in the important centers of Europe.  He learned about Italian opera in Italy and French music in Paris.  He was personally acquainted with Emperor Franz Joseph and Maria Teresa of Austria.  And of course he knew Haydn. Thus the scope of his musical compositions covered all of the important styles and forms of his time. He took these materials and combined them into something new and wonderful.

He is most famous in opera for three operas which he composed with the librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, a fascinating man who was a jew, an ordained Roman Catholic priest, an opera librettist and finally a teacher of Italian literature at Columbia University in New York City.  Mozart's three Da Ponte operas are Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte, all operas about relationships between men and women.

Mozart wrote a lot of other operas in other formats.  He wrote operas in German, most notably Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) and Die Zauberflöte (The Magic flute).  Towards the end of his life he wrote the magnificent opera seria La clemenza di Tito (The Clemency of Titus).  

These are Mozart's operas in date order:

• Bastien und Bastienne  (2 October 1768) German Singspiel
• La finta semplice (1 May 1769) Italian opera buffa
• Mitridate, re di Ponto (26 December 1770) Italian opera seria
• Ascanio in Alba (17 October 1771) Italian
• Il sogno di Scipione  (1 May 1772) Italian Serenata drammatica
• Lucio Silla  (26 December 1772) Italian Dramma per musica
• La finta giardiniera #87 (13 January 1775) Italian Dramma giocoso
• Il re pastore (23 April 1775) Italian Serenata
• Zaide  (27 January 1866) German Singspiel
• Idomeneo, re di Creta #45 (29 January 1781) Italian Dramma per musica
• Die Entführung aus dem Serail #21 (16 July 1782) German Singspiel
• Der Schauspieldirektor (7 February 1786) German Comedy with music
• Le nozze di Figaro #5 (1 May 1786) Italian Opera buffa
• Don Giovanni #7 (29 October 1787) Italian Dramma giocoso
• Così fan tutte #11 (26 January 1790) Italian Dramma giocoso
• Der Stein der Weisen (11 September 1790) Singspiel 
• La clemenza di Tito #52 (6 September 1791) Italian Opera seria
• Die Zauberflöte #1 (30 September 1791)  German Singspiel'