north-west of Berlin, was something of a backwater in the late 18th century. The means of the court theatre, where Kalkbrenner staged his operas, were limited, the surroundings provincial, and the budget restricted. Nevertheless, this was a secure position with one of the major German princes, an enlightened philosopher-sovereign whom Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben recommended to Alexander Hamilton as a candidate for the American Presidency. Henry’s portrait as drawn by an eminent biographer of his older brother Frederick the Great is not unflattering: "Like Frederick he (Prince Henry of Prussia) was a man of many and varied talents, cultivated, musical and intelligent. Like Frederick he established at Rheinsberg a brilliant court, rivalling the king’s own. Like Frederick he was enchanted by France and things French – and, being without final responsibility, could indulge a prejudice in that direction without risk of it becoming mistaken for a policy.... Small in stature he was both charming and vain; and had a most attractive wife...whom he later deserted, caring little for her as a woman." In 1796 the Kalkbrenner family surfaced in Italy where they stayed for two years. Naples was home to the famous Teatro di San Carlo, then one of the largest opera houses in the world, seating 3,300. This was still the great age of the Neapolitan Opera. Other German composers like Johann Adolph Hasse, Johann Christian Bach, and particularly Christoph Willibald Gluck had successfully preceded Kalkbrenner to Naples and there is reason to believe that he hoped to establish himself as a composer of Neapolitan operas there. However, no proof has yet established that he composed or staged an opera in Naples. In 1799 Kalkbrenner made his way to Paris where he managed to become Maître des Chœurs et des Écoles at the Paris Opera. In 1803 he rearranged Mozart’s Don Giovanni for the Paris Opera interpolating pieces he composed himself. Together with Ludwig Wenzel Lachnith, a Bohemian horn player and composer, he produced a number of infamous pasticcios for the Paris Opera. These were operas cobbled together using music from different composers, among them Mozart and Joseph Haydn. Jointly with Lachnith, Kalkbrenner staged Les Mystères d'Isis, (a botch that was justly parodied as Les Misères d'ici), a travesty of Mozart’s Magic Flute, at the Paris Opera. Kalkbrenner, having served at German courts where the court language was French, was probably bilingual or at least completely fluent in French.