Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) composed his 2-act comic opera Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) in 1791, the year he died. It premiered just three months before Mozart’s death, was quickly embraced by audiences of the time, and has remained a hugely popular staple of the opera and orchestral repertoire around the world ever since.
The Magic Flute was an innovative opera form called singspiel (similar to our Broadway musicals) that incorporated both singing and spoken dialogue. The opera combines comedy, farce, romance, fairy tale, Egyptian mythology, and Masonic elements.
The opera features a Queen of the Night villain, her daughter Pamina, an Egyptian Prince named Tamino who rescues Pamina with the aid of a magic flute, Tamino’s companion, a birdcatcher named Papageno, Papageno’s romantic interest Papagena, and Sarastro, a High Priest of Isis and Osiris.
As was typical for the time, The Magic Flute opens with an instrumental overture. The approximately 5-7 minute overture that you will hear is an arrangement of Mozart’s symphonic D major overture and is played by a wind octet of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns.
Here is Ricardo Muti conducting Mozart’s Overture to the Magic Flute
