Der Schauspieldirektor
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Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario), K. 486, is a comic singspiel written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Gottlieb Stephanie der Jüngere.
Mozart wrote the opera as his entry in a musical competition sponsored on February 7, 1786 by the Austrian Emperor Joseph II at the Schönbrunn palace in Vienna. The competition was to pit a German singspiel against an Italian opera. The competing Italian entry was the opera buffa Prima la Musica, poi le Parole (First the Music, then the Words), by Antonio Salieri.
The plot of Der Schauspieldirektor mainly concerns the woes of an impresario as he deals with a troupe of performers, especially the feisty prima donnas ("Ich bin die erste Sängerin!").
It has been noted that the character and scale of the overture are similar to those of the overture to Le Nozze di Figaro, which was written at the same time and premiered later the same year.
External links
- Synopsis (http://opera.stanford.edu/Mozart/Schauspieldirektor/main.html) from Stanford University
- Libretto (http://opera.stanford.edu/Mozart/Schauspieldirektor/libretto.html)