Opera in two acts.
Libretto: Emanuel Schikaneder.

In Barrie Kosky's staging of The Magic Flute, everything is like a fairy tale, and every idea testifies to the gigantic sense of humour of the director, who must have had a great time with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's music. When the red curtain opens, all the spectator sees is a white screen, on which the hilarity is about to begin - the director will imaginatively juggle, to the rhythm of Mozart's music, elements of silent cinema, slapstick comedy and cartoon. The co-creators of this production - Suzanne Andrade and Paul Barritt of the '1927' team - have combined cinematic animation with live theatre. The result is stunning. Here is Papageno, the rubbishy simpleton, here portrayed as a sad Buster Keaton-type clown, getting drunk in the company of pink elephants chugging cocktails from narrow glasses. The Queen of the Night is a giant spider, Monostatos appears as a pale vampire in a Count Dracula costume, and Pamina wears a black wig with fringe, making her resemble silent film star actress and dancer Louise Brooks.