W. A. Mozart (1756-1791) created a piece of music history with this unique stage work, which since its premiere in September 1791 has become one of the most popular and most performed operas worldwide.
When the theater and bon vivant Emanuel Schickaneder approached the financially and psychologically troubled composer in 1790 and presented him with a fairy-tale libretto, Mozart was immediately taken with it and added the masonic ideals and rites that were fashionable at the time. These gave the “Magic Flute” a completely different meaning and transformed the piece from a colorful magic pose into an almost testamentary appeal to humanity - entirely in the style of the spirit of the Viennese Classicism. Musically, this great German opera or Singspiel unites different styles such as opera seria, opera buffa and tragédie lyrique. Mozart’s genius united the French romance, the Italian aria and the German Lied to a fascinating kaleidoscope that inspires young and old alike. Popular arias from the "Magic Flute" such as “The Birdcatcher I am”, “Hell’s Revenge is boiling in my Heart”, or “This Portrait is Enchantingly Beautiful” are easily accessible to everyone. Goethe attested that this music alone would have provided a worthy accompaniment to his Faust.

"Madama Butterfly" was, according to Puccini’s own statement, Puccini’s favorite work: "...of all the operas I have written, the most deeply felt and suggestive. After the composer had approached the Far Eastern subject with zeal, he set about studying Japanese musical culture and the customs and traditions of the country with great energy. He even sought out a Japanese actress who was touring Europe to listen to the timbre of the Japanese female voice. Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) masterfully blended his own style with authentic Japanese melodies and the use of exotic instruments, giving the opera its unmistakable atmosphere.
Guilt, atonement and the blossoming of a deep love are the core themes of the work. The tragic figure of the Butterfly is at the center of the action: Puccini completes her development from happy bride to abandoned mother and finally to suicide victim with dreamy, ecstatic melodies and arias. All the other characters in the piece, even the male lead character Pinkerton, are vocally and action-determining rather than marginal figures.
As devastating as the premiere was for the composer in February 1904 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, "Madama Butterfly" began its great triumphal march around the world in a revised version in May 1904 in Brescia.