Freihaustheater
His wife Sophie Seyler died in 1789. Earlier in that year she had published the romantic "Singspiel" or opera "Huon and Amanda" (or "Oberon"), based on a poem by their friend and collaborator Christoph Martin Wieland. The play, with original music by Carl Hanke, became a success in Hamburg; Hanke had been recruited by Abel Seyler as music director at the Comödienhaus in Hamburg in 1783. A lightly adapted version of Seyler's opera with new music by Paul Wranitzky became the first opera performed by Emanuel Schikaneder's troupe at the Theater auf der Wieden, and established a tradition within Schikaneder's company of fairy-tale operas that was to culminate two years later in Mozart's and Schikaneder's opera "The Magic Flute"; Sophie Seyler's "Oberon" is regarded as one of the primary influences on the plot and characters of "The Magic Flute".