If this interests you, I highly suggest Jacques Chailley's "The Magic Flute Unveiled: Esoteric symbolism in Mozart's Masonic Opera".
The only gripe I have with the book is that some of the things that the author intereprets as symbolism could probably be taken cum grano salis. It seemed like every little possible numeric grouping was a symbol. Having said that, his theory as to why the opera seems to flip the good/bad characters seems reasonable unlike some of his other claims in the book. While I haven't read them yet, I was told that H.C. Robbins Landon's "Mozart's Last year" and I think "The Golden Years" are a good resource for those interested in the Magic Flute. Another book that I understand has a good deal of information about the Magic Flute is Paul Nettl's "Mozart and Masonry" (The Chailley critiques the Nettl in a number of areas) Chris (Not related much to the Magic Flute, but Maynard Solomon's Mozart biography is a great read!) --- Bill Gross <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > My wife and I went to see "Magic Flute" Sunday by the Dallas Opera. > Afterward we were musing over the plot development. Specifically it was the > way Tamino changes loyalties at the drop of a hat (from Queen of the Night > to Sarastro). I asked a friend living in New York (really enjoys opera) to > explain this. I was expecting exposition of plots not fully developed on > stage etc. Instead I got this; I think you might enjoy it. > > > > He's a basso (Sarastro), and everyone knows they have more credibility than > sopranos who hit high notes like that. Those are obviously Wicked Women, > and Wizards are much more credible than that. > > > > Opera logic. Besides, Tamino's no mental giant. All those vibrations in > his > > head from being a tenor, as Bing used to say. > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > post: horn@music.memphis.edu > unsubscribe or set options at > http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/tedesccj%40yahoo.com > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
