| Uniform title | Flûte enchantée. English |
| Contents |
Part one. Preliminary circumvolutions. What everyone knows -- Traditions and misunderstandings -- The libretto, how many authors -- Legend of the revised libretto -- Sources of the libretto -- History of the libretto and its growth -- Mozart and Singspiel -- Freemasonry in Vienna in the eighteenth century -- Mozart and Freemasonry -- Freemasonry and feminism in Die Zauberflöte -- Part two. In pursuit of the hidden meaning. Exegesis of the five chords -- The cosmogony of the libretto -- The principle characters: two heavenly bodies, four elements -- The secondary characters -- Other symbols -- The initiatory trials -- From libretto to score -- Part three. Analysis of the opera. Overall view -- The overtures -- The first act -- The second act -- Conclusion -- Appendix 1. Letter from Seyfried to Treitschke -- Appendix 2. Anonymous article in the Monatsschrift für theater and Musik, Vienna, 1857. |
| Abstract |
Solving one of music history's most elusive mysteries, the author sets out to disprove the enduring myth that The Magic Flute suffers from an incomprehensible libretto. He establishes the social, historical and religious context of Mozart's brilliant final opera, presenting compelling evidence that the entire libretto, sustained by the music, was fashioned according to Masonic ritual. The author reveals the coherence of the opera and the hidden significance of its characters and situations. He relates each of these elements to the esoteric tradition from which they emanate and to Mozart's own involvement with the Masonic brotherhood. In addition to its detailed and constructive scholarship, this book is alive with the atmosphere of eighteenth-century Vienna and its sages, royal personages, and scoundrels, who supply many fascinating sidelights on politics, music, literature, religion, and Freemasonry. Under the author's perceptive eye, this book emerges as a rigorously constructed theater piece in which Mozart's superb music and the libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder (and others) fulfill and illuminate each other. |
| General note | Translation of: La flûte enchantée. |
| General note | Reprint. Previously published: The Magic flute, masonic opera. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1971. |
| General note | The list of illustrations is misprinted as following page 146, but the illustrations actually start following page 130. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| LCCN | 91043577 |
| ISBN | 9780892813582 |
| ISBN | 089281358X |
