Outside Vienna, no theatre company was more receptive to Mozart’s music than the Italiänische Opera-Virtuosen, a small commercial ensemble based in Prague which also gave summer seasons in Leipzig. Directed by Pasquale Bondini and Domenico Guardasoni, it played a significant role in the composer’s later career. In 1786, its production of Figaro was received with such enthusiasm that Mozart was invited to visit Prague, where he reported with pride that tunes from the opera were being whistled in the street. The Italiänische Opera-Virtuosen did not make a practice of commissioning works, but because an opera was required to celebrate the imperial marriage of the Archduchess Maria Theresia an agreement was reached for a new work on the Don Juan story. Even though it was not ready in time for its festive première, Don Giovanni was a popular success, and Guardasoni began to consider the possibility of another commission for Mozart. In the summer of 1789, however, the Italiänische Opera-Virtuosen relocated to Warsaw and nothing further was heard about this proposal. During his second season at the Court of Stanisław August Poniatowski, Guardasoni introduced a programme of opera seria, a new venture for his company, but a timely one, as the troupe was recalled to Prague in the summer of 1791 in order to stage La clemenza di Tito in honour of the Coronation of Leopold II. In the years following Mozart’s death, the Italiänische Opera-Virtuosen, far from abandoning his Italian operas, continued to play a pivotal role in sustaining interest in them, while elsewhere German Singspiel versions swept the field. An especially notable success was a Leipzig production of Cosìfan tutte in 1792, and this was followed in 1794 by a well-attended second performance run for La clemenza in Prague. All these events were developed by Niemetschek, the composer’s early biographer, into a compelling narrative which saw the formation of a ‘special relationship’ between the discerning Prague audience and its favoured visitor. A powerful blend of history and myth, it remains to this day one of the central strands of Mozart historiography, but Leipzig was largely written out of the picture.