Mozart "The Magic Flute"

This was Mozart’s last opera. It was produced at Vienna on September 30, 1791, and on December 5 the master passed away. He wrote it to oblige his old friend Schickaneder, the theatre manager, who prepared the libretto, and who requited the favour by selling the score to other managers, contrary to a promise made to the composer. The text is disjointed, and full of improbabilities and absurdities. Yet it is undeniably adapted for the stage. Goethe, who admitted its inanities, and himself contemplated a continuation of the libretto, declared that "the author had the most perfect knowledge of the art of contrast and a wonderful knack of introducing stage effects."

The new Magic Flute at the Komische Oper has created an absolute furore – and not just in Berlin! In Los Angeles, Minneapolis and at the Deutsche Opera on the Rhine, this production has been greeted with euphoric enthusiasm by both audiences and the Press.“Barrie Kosky has transformed the Magic Flute into a stunning live-action cartoon, so bewitching as to silence every criticism,“ [Los Angeles Times].

The British theatre group 1927 and Barrie Kosky have pulled off "a deliciously absurd blend of silent film and animation," [Berliner Morgenpost]. “You are amazed by the perfection, you laugh in appreciation of the virtuoso design behind each of these scenes... Breath-taking!” 

“A show that oozes technical accomplishment, and there's no doubt, with a debut as slick as this, that these young artists have a bright future ahead of them.” The Age, Melbourne