That he wrote the libretto for Mozart's last opera, The Magic Flute, has made his name unforgettable. However, his contemporaries knew him for entirely different reasons: as a daring entrepreneur, a revolutionary theater maker, and a cheeky fighter who took on Goethe's brother-in-law Vulpius just as fiercely as he did critics and authorities. His career began at the bottom. Schikaneder was the son of a servant. Yet, he became a universal talent: a playwright and theater director, a dancer and director, a celebrated performer of Hamlet, and the first Papageno. No theater figure of his time had a greater instinct for the popular, a better sense of stage magic through the latest techniques and inventions, or more courage for experimentation. Schikaneder's outdoor performances featured carriages, horses, and encampments, his dramas included burning castles and flying Valkyries, and his comedies.