How old was Mozart when he composed his first opera: "Apollo et Hyacinthus"?

"Apollo et Hyacinthus" was composed when Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was 11, and it is in Latin. Not very promising material, one might think, but Apollo is a truly astonishing piece, containing music of great beauty and dramatic insight. It is of course remarkable that anyone could write an opera of such quality at such an age, but in some ways the achievement is unsurprising, given how extraordinary Mozart’s childhood had already been up to that point.

By the time Mozart turned 11, he had traveled extensively through much of Europe, including such leading musical centers as Munich, Vienna, Mannheim, Paris and London. Equally importantly, he had been able to hear performances of works by many of the most celebrated composers of the day, and when he finally returned home in December 1766, a few weeks before his 11th birthday, he had written numerous symphonies, sonatas and arias of his own.