"This engrossing study of the operas of Mozart spans the whole of the composer's career, from the very early works composed while he was still a child to his last years and the extraordinarily creative period that produced The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, and The Magic Flute. As Mozart's knowledge of the stage grew and as his musical talent developed, his operas became more subtle and sophisticated, revealing the composer's consummate mastery of the techniques of both opera seria and opera buffa, as well as of the many other forms of musical drama popular at the time. Liebner leads the reader through the various stages of Mozart's development as a composer for the stage and shows how Mozart moved beyond a sound knowledge of contemporary forms and technique to advance the evolution of operatic technique and achievement. MOZART ON THE STAGE opens with a brief discussion of Mozart's role as an artist in the latter half of the eighteenth century. An admirer of Jean Jacques Rousseau and a contemporary of Schiller, Mozart broke away from the traditional system of aristocratic patronage in the conviction that an artist should be free and independent, responsible only to himself for the content and form of his work. Although this cost Mozart a life of comparative comfort and security, Liebner argues that the effects of Mozart's revolutionary stance can be traced throughout the work written for the stage. In an early chapter, Liebner sets out Mozart's approach to opera and his belief that the libretto and staging were always subordinate to the music. This is illustrated by detailed analysis of the early works and by individual chapters devoted to discussion of each of the major works, including The Abduction from the Seraglio, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, and The Magic Flute. The operas are examined with respect to both their musical and their dramatic content and are related to dominant social and dramatic conventions of the time. The author shows how Mozart utilized the entire range of musical means at hand to create, often from mediocre librettos, some of the most remarkable operas in musical history. In his approach to each opera, Liebner stresses the particular dramatic or musical technique that contributes to an understanding of Mozart's achievements in this genre, showing both how the young Mozart was influenced by contemporary musical trends and how he influenced and shaped eighteenth-century opera. In his fascinating chapters on The Magic Flute, the author compares Mozart's last opera to Shakespeare's The Tempest, pointing to similarities in concept and structure that illuminate and enrich our appreciation of Mozart's 'swan-song.' MOZART ON THE STAGE will be a welcome volume to music-lovers and students as well as opera-goers--to anyone, in brief, who is interested in Mozart's development as an opera-composer or in the operas themselves."--Dust jacket.