This is how the first Queen of the Night and Pamina looked in Mozart's opera 'The Magic Flute'

The Magic Flute was Mozart 's last opera . The Salzburg genius was 35 years old when this work premiered at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. The year was 1791, and the Austrian composer had only two months to live. Two very important women in the musician's life graced that stage: Josepha Hofer and Anna Gottlieb . Do you know who these women were?

Mozart's sister-in-law and first Queen of the Night

Aloysia, Sophie, Constanze, and Josepha were the Weber sisters. Mozart flirted with the first two, though he eventually married the third. In this German family of artists, Josepha was the eldest.

The soprano, who was married twice (first to the imperial court violinist Franz de Paula Hofer and then to the first interpreter of the role of Pizarro in Beethoven's opera Fidelio , the singer Sebastian Mayer), played the first Queen of the Night.

The soprano, who sang two of the score's most complex and famous arias (one of them, "Hell's vengeance boils in my heart "), performed this role until 1801. She was 43 years old at the time and had four years left before her retirement. She died in 1819 in the same city that had applauded her for her portrayal of one of Mozart 's most charismatic characters.

The first Pamina from 'The Magic Flute'

That first Queen of the Night had a partner on stage, Anna Gottlieb. This diva of the era was responsible for bringing to life another of the undisputed protagonists, Princess Pamina, before the general public. You might be interested to know that the Austrian soprano was no more than 17 years old when the composer decided she should embody the queen's daughter. Undoubtedly, the most acclaimed role of her career.

Although this artist, whose sensitivity and predisposition for parody were praised by critics, was no novice in this field. Gottlieb, who debuted at the age of five at the Imperial Court Theatre, was already a familiar face to Mozart when The Magic Flute premiered. Indeed, she was the first Barbarina in another of the Austrian composer's masterpieces, The Marriage of Figaro , at just twelve years old.

After a life of adulation, she ended up mired in poverty. In those sad years, she was ridiculed, as pianist Wilhelm Kuhe recounts in his memoirs. The musician relates how in 1842, during a tribute to Mozart , a tall, elderly lady addressed the audience, exclaiming, "I am the first Pamina!" The artist died at the age of 82 and was buried in the same cemetery as the composer.

Coming soon to Valencia

As you can see, these two women were not only important in Mozart 's last opera , but also close to the Austrian composer on a more personal level. You'll be interested to know that you can see it soon in Valencia .