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or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts at IntoHistory.com. It's the evening of September 6th, 1791, in Prague, the capital of Bohemia.

On stage at the Estates Theatre, a 35-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sweeps his arm with a flourish from behind a harpsichord.

Every eye in the orchestra is locked on him straining to keep pace, and at last, Mozart brings the music to a crashing end.

Silence falls in the auditorium. Mozart pushes back his chair and rises, ready to bask in the crowd's adulation,

just as he has countless times before. But instead of thunderous applause, a stunned quiet

settles over the theater. Mozart hesitates, then bows. Four years ago in this very theater,

Mozart premiered the opera Don Giovanni,

and then his work was met with rapturous applause.

But today's opera has fallen flat, and the audience's reaction stings.

Head bowed, Mozart makes his way off the stage.

He passes the queen of Bohemia's box,

and the snickering laughter coming from it makes Mozart's cheeks

burn. Humiliated, Mozart quickens his pace and slips away, determined to return home to Vienna

as soon as possible. To many, the lukewarm debut of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's La Commenza Titito

will be seen as proof that the former child prodigy has lost his touch.

But although he has fallen on hard times recently,

Mozart has one more operatic masterpiece to give the world.

He's been working on another composition, and this one is much closer to his heart.

And before the month is out, it will astonish audiences and redeem his reputation when the magic flute is first

...