Gottlieb Stephanie
Illustration — Engraved portrait of Gottlieb Stephanie Johann Gottlieb Stephanie the Younger (19 February 1741 – 23 January 1800) was an Austrian playwright, director and librettist, most famously to Mozart. Stephanie was born in Breslau, Prussia. He was taken prisoner by the Austrian forces in the Battle of Landeshut (1760) in the Seven Years' War.
Also recorded as Johann Gottlieb Stephanie the Younger
Gottlieb Stephanie
The Younger.

Philipp Stein · Philipp Stein, Deutsche Schauspieler · Public domain
- Born
- 1741
- Died
- 1800
- Occupation
- librettist · writer · stage actor · composer · actor · playwright
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Illustration — Engraved portrait of Gottlieb Stephanie Johann Gottlieb Stephanie the Younger (19 February 1741 – 23 January 1800) was an Austrian playwright, director and librettist, most famously to Mozart. Stephanie was born in Breslau, Prussia. He was taken prisoner by the Austrian forces in the Battle of Landeshut (1760) in the Seven Years' War.
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Personal life
Personal life
After nine months of imprisonment in Villach, he joined the Imperial Army and went to Vienna after the war ended. He was appointed to head the National Singspiel, a favourite project of Emperor Joseph II. Stephanie's adaptation of Christoph Friedrich Bretzner's Belmont und Constanze has been harshly criticized; E. Dent called it "the very worst that he ever set to music". Mozart wrote to his father, "you are quite right so far as Stephanie's work is concerned.. I am well aware that the verse is not of the best." In 1769 Stephanie adapted Shakespeare's Macbeth to suit popular taste in Vienna. It was performed in the 1770s.
Stephanie's original surname was Stephan. He and his older brother, Christian Gottlob Stephanie (1733 – 10 April 1798) changed it to Stephanie. Gottlieb Stephanie the Younger married Anna Maria Mika (1751, Stiahlau, Bohemia – 2 February 1802, Vienna), an actress who debuted on 27 April 1771 at the Burgtheater. The couple had a daughter, Wilhelmine Korn, also an actress. Gottlieb Stephanie died in Vienna, aged 58.
Works
Works
• Die Entführung aus dem Serail, 1782, Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart • Der Schauspieldirektor, 1786, Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart • Doktor und Apotheker, 1786, Music: Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf

Maria Anna Stephanie geborene Mika (* 1751 in Prag; † 2. Februar 1802 in Wien) war österreichische Theater-Schauspielerin und Ehefrau von Johann Gottlieb Stephanie
Philipp Stein · Philipp Stein, Deutsche Schauspieler
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1741
Gottlieb Stephanie was born in 1741.
1800
Gottlieb Stephanie died at Vienna.
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q78822: Gottlieb Stephanie
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
- “Gottlieb Stephanie”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Institutional database
- MusicBrainz artist record for Johann Gottlieb Stephanie
Scholarly · MetaBrainz Foundation
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.BLKÖ Stephanie, Gottlieb 38 222 225
- 2.Boerner, Steve. K. 384, Die Entführung aus dem Serail. The Mozart Project. 1998.
- 3.Williams, Simon. Shakespeare on the German Stage, Vol. 1 1586–1914. Cambridge, 1990.
- 4.BLKÖ Stephanie, Christian Gottlob 38 216 222
- 5.Rikola. Silhouetten aus dem Jahre 1781. 180. 1922. 1084868655.
- 6.BLKÖ Korn, Wilhelmine 12 463
- 7.Nbn-resolving.de. DFG-Viewer: Version 3.0.
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Institutional database
MusicBrainz artist record for Johann Gottlieb StephanieMetaBrainz Foundation
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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