Photo: Period engraving, Wikimedia Commons (public domain)He wrote the words, ran the theatre, and on the first night in 1791 stepped out in feathers himself: Schikaneder was the very first Papageno, with Mozart conducting. The takings later helped him build the Theater an der Wien.
His Theater auf der Wieden was a family business of actors and singers, and he wrote Papageno's songs for his own comic gifts; the premiere run kept the house full night after night through the 1790s. The money did not stay: Schikaneder built big, lost bigger, and died poor in Vienna in 1812, while the opera he had willed into being was already conquering every stage in Europe.