In the year 1783, Mozart composed the music for the pantomime 'Pantalon & Columbine' for a carnival ball, in which he himself played the role of Harlekin. Fragments of the captivating music, which seems to be originally desigend for a string orchestra, are preserved in their original version (for example a first violin part is handed down). Unfortunately, the action of the pantomime is almost entirely lost, the only hints being headings to particular movements, as for example 'Columbine teases Pantalon' or 'Pantalon is angry', as well as the list of characters that still exists. There are remarks of Mozart in one of his letters that in the play he is adequately ridiculing some of his (noble) contemporaries (and it is said that he did not opt for harmless jokes).

The musical reconstruction and the completion of the pantomime is done by the composer Johannes Holik in an attempt to preserve Mozart's style. Missing parts find their replacement in other fragments by Mozart, the entire score being designed for string orchestras. A newly composed 'Prologue' and 'Epilogue' by Johannes Holik (commissioned by WIENER MOZARTJAHR 2006) make a musical version of the background story in order to guide us from our world into that of the Mozart pantomime.

Milan Sladek refashions or rather adapts the scenario of the pantomime based on the model of the 'comèdie italienne' (also known as: 'théâtre italien'), which has been more popular and more modern in Mozart's time than the traditional Italian 'comedia dell'arte': Its types have been transformed in the 'comédie italienne' through an adoption of the social typology of the French metropolis; Columbine has been changed into the daughter of Pantalon, Harlekin into a lover, etc. In the only traditional role, Pierrot as a servant.