The Magic Flute at Opéra national de Paris - Opéra Bastille

We will never know how the presentiment of death came to Mozart, or in what form death sent its messengers. However, all the music composed in 1791, the last year of his life, leads us to believe that Mozart had heard the message and accepted it. Nurtured on the philosophy of the Enlightenment, The Magic Flute is a parable on the great themes that animated the 18th century: nature and nurture, education and morality, truth and religion. It expresses its convictions with deliberate naivety, exploring with moving simplicity the choices that all human beings must make. A mixture of fairy tale, populist comedy, philosophic fable, religious mystery and Masonic opera, it is to this ‘chaos’ that The Magic Flute owes its miraculous limpidity. It shows us pain and provides the healing balm; light triumphs over darkness illuminating the pathway to both love and brotherhood that must be followed by those who would be worthy of humanity.