The magic flute – Europa Incanto

The summer edition of the Ostia Antica 2023 Festival closes with the special version of Mozart's The Magic Flute, a work interpreted by the children and the Europa Incanto Orchestra, all directed by Maestro Germano Neri.

The Magic Flute K 620 (original title in German Die Zauberflöte), is an opera in two acts set to music by Mozart in 1791, with a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder and with the contribution of Karl Ludwig Giesecke. The first performance took place at the Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna again in 1791 with Schikaneder himself (in the role of Papageno) and Josepha Hofer, Mozart's sister-in-law (in the role of the Queen of the Night), directed by the composer. The first act did not meet with the favor of the public, although in the end the performance was ultimately very successful. In the numerous subsequent performances, the success increased, definitively conquering the public.

The plot of the work, full of esoteric and Masonic meanings, takes place in an imaginary ancient Egypt; characterized by an alternation of references to day and night, it develops along a gradual transition from the darkness of deception and superstition towards light, a metaphor for sunlight, which corresponds to a progressive reversal of perspective in the role of the good and villains, whose opposite poles are represented by Sarastro and the Queen of the Night, Astrifiammante.