Ger­man op­era in two acts K. 620 (1791)
Lib­retto: Emanuel Schi­k­aneder

"The Ma­gic Flute" is Moz­art’s most pop­u­lar and be­loved op­era, and its melod­ies – from Pa­ga­geno’s folk­lor­ic tunes to the Queen of the Night’s breath­tak­ing col­orat­ur­as – are fa­mil­i­ar even among non-listen­ers of clas­sic­al mu­sic.

From the il­lus­tra­tion on the stage cur­tain to the in­cred­ible, wildly col­oured, primev­al- look­ing mon­sters, an­im­als and dec­or­at­ive ele­ments on the stage, the pro­duc­tion is dom­in­ated by the un­mis­tak­able ex­press­ive world of the Dutch artist and sculptor Karel Ap­pel. A co-founder of the ac­claimed Co­bra Group, Ap­pel de­veloped a darky ex­pres­sion-ist­ic idiom and was the "secret dram­at­urge" of the pro­duc­tion, says dir­ect­or Audi. Ap­pel died at the age of 85 three months be­fore the premiere of "Die Za­uber­flöte" at the Salzburg Fest­iv­al.

Blend­ing smoothly in­to Ap­pel’s exot­ic designs, dir­ect­or Pierre Audi’s pro­duc­tion is neither a con­tem­por­iz­a­tion nor a de­con­struc­tion of Moz­art’s last works. In­stead, Audi leaves the al­leged styl­ist­ic breaks and un­re­solved con­flicts between good and evil as they are and seeks to "give them a home", as he puts it. He relates the fairy-tale story of the "Ma­gic Flute" in a sen­su­al and play­ful, but nev­er child­like or child­ish way, us­ing Ap­pel’s sets as a com­pon­ent of his vis­ion.

Réne Pa­pe, Sarastro
Paul Groves, Tamino
Gen­ia Kühmei­er, Pam­ina
Chris­ti­an Ger­hah­er, Papa­geno
Irena Be­spa­lovaite, Papa­gena
Di­ana Dam­rau, Queen of the Night

Wien­er Phil­har­monik­er
Konzer­tver­ein­i­gung Wien­er Staat­so­per­n­chor

Ric­cardo Muti, con­duct­or
Pierre Audi, stage dir­ect­or
Bri­an Large, video dir­ect­or

Re­cord­ing dates: 25.07.| 29.07.| 04.08.2006
04.08.2006 live broad­cast with timeshift on OR­F2

Ven­ue: Großes Fest­spiel­haus