Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Thamos, Koenig in Aegypten, K. 345/336a (Thamos, King of Egypt): Incidental Music (English)

Thamos, König in Ägypten, K. 345/336a was composed between 1773 and 1779 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) as incidental music for a play by Tobias Philipp von Gebler, written in the spirit of Enlightenment humanism and suffused with Masonic symbolism. Set in an idealized ancient Egypt, the drama explores themes of wisdom, moral trial, and enlightened rule--ideas that would later find fuller operatic expression in Die Zauberflöte. Mozart's music, consisting of choruses, entr'actes, and melodramas, was first performed in 1774 in Vienna, with subsequent revisions and additions reflecting the composer's growing dramatic maturity. Though the play itself has fallen into obscurity, Thamos, König in Ägypten has endured in concert performance, and today it is valued as an important precursor to Mozart's late theatrical style. This is edition (W108191) is translated to English, and the original German (W113191) is also available from the publisher. Reprint edition.