Together, they have combined silent film, live video and live music, animation and pantomime. He invited original British theatre group 1927 to work with him. The current version’s director, Australia’s Barrie Kosky who is the artistic director of Berlin’s Komische Oper, has been a part of the opera world for over twenty years. Even the production is the third staging of the opera at this theatre since it was rebuilt, after the ‘space’ version of Laco Adamik and the ‘school’ version of Achim Freyer. There are three (repeated) chords in the intrada, Three Ladies, Three Boys, Sarastro’s three temples: Wisdom, Reason and Nature the lovers Tamino and Pamina have to undergo three tests: silence, being apart, and fire and water. The Magic Flute is ruled by the magic number three. He brought his mother-in-law, his seven-year-old son Carl, a French horn player friend, and even the envious Antonio Salieri to the theatre. Mozart was so happy that he sold his horse, drank black coffee and smoked a pipe.

The opera was enthusiastically received, playing to a packed house every night. The world premiere of The Magic Flute took place on 30 September 1791 in Vienna, with Mozart conducting.

Magic flute la opera 2016