In 1801, some ten years after Mozart’s death, The Magic Flute was performed in Paris as Les Mystères d’Isis (The Mysteries of Isis). It bore little resemblance to the Flute we know today: it was spiced up with arrangements of arias and ensemble pieces from The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and, for good measure, bits of a Haydn symphony. Far from being shunned by a critical and discerning public, Les Mystères was wildly successful, so much so that a quarter century passed before Parisian audiences got to hear the real thing.
Across the Channel, The Abduction from the Seraglio and other Mozart operas fared little better in high-spirited mutilations by conductor-impresarios like Sir Henry Bishop. Despite outraged shrieks from the likes of Berlioz, musical vivisection was popular during much of the early nineteenth century; Mozart, revered as he was, was no exception. Musical tastes had moved away from the classical ideals. Giacomo Meyerbeer’s pageants captivated the popular imagination while the music of Wagner, Schumann, Chopin, and Verdi (all Mozart worshippers) shaped more serious tastes. It was ironic that the composers who revered Mozart the most were the ones who moved public opinion away from his style of music. So it may not have been altogether surprising that in 1851 an obscure physician named Franz Lorenz published a little monograph called In Sachen Mozarts (In the Matter of Mozart). It was both an alarm and a call to action.
The monograph described the poor state
