After the production of The Magic Flute, Mozart worked feverishly on his Requiem, with the foreboding that it would commemorate his own death, but he died at the age of 35 without finishing it. The work was completed by his pupil Franz Süssmayr at the request of Mozart's wife, Constanze, after Joseph Eybler, another pupil whom she had asked to complete it, failed to follow through.

The plot of Actéon is based on a story in Ovid's Metamorphoses. It tells the story of a hunter who accidentally discovers the goddess Diana bathing with her attendants. He tries to hide but is discovered by Diana who angrily transforms him into a stag, after which he is pursued and torn apart by his own hounds.

The world's largest orchestra consisted of 8,097 musicians who gathered in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on 1 September 2019, to perform the Russian National Anthem.

A single violin is made from over 70 individual pieces of wood.

Michael Praetorius (1571-1621) was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of musical forms based on Protestant hymns. His development of the chorale concerto, particularly the polychoral variety, resulted directly from his familiarity with the music of such Venetians as Giovanni Gabrieli and eventually evolved into the chorale cantata, which culminated in the works of J.S. Bach and became a popular liturgical form in Germany for more than a hundred years.

Fidelio tells the story of Leonore who, disguised as a prison guard named "Fidelio", rescues her husband Florestan from death in a political prison.

He composed music for the principal Lutheran churches of Leipzig, composing hundreds of four-part harmonizations of Lutheran chorales, as well as several masses, including Mass in B minor, which is among his most popular vocal works.

One of Wagner's greatest gifts to music was the leitmotif. Simply put, it's a musical signature designed to represent a particular character or theme, and he uses the device throughout his operas. Modern film composers have since adopted the technique, and examples can be found in countless Hollywood scores.

The smallest clarinet is the Ab Piccolo Clarinet checking in at just 14 inches long. It is called the Ab sopranino and is the only surviving member of the piccolo group.

Schubert, who was little more than five feet tall, was nicknamed "Schwammerl", which translates as "Little Mushroom". He wasn't little in the music world, however, leaving behind a vast oeuvre, including more than 600 secular vocal works, seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music and a large body of piano and chamber music.