THE MAGIC FLUTE Comes to the Paris Opera Next Month

In 1791, disappointed by the fickle Viennese who preferred other composers, particularly Italian ones, Mozart accepted a proposal from his friend Emanuel Schikaneder, the director of the Theater auf der Wieden, to write an opera in German for the less bourgeois suburban audiences. 

The Magic Flute was an instant success, and has been ever since. A singspiel interweaving gaiety and depth, Mozart’s opera is the fruit of the Enlightenment as much as a children’s story, an allegory on the nature of Man as much as a reflection of the composer's membership of the Freemasons. 

Robert Carsen upturns the libretto’s Manicheanism by seeing Sarastro and the Queen of the Night as allies who guide the young Tamino and Pamina along the path of virtue. An interpretation embodied in an elegant, uncluttered production in which love and wisdom triumph in the end.