SINGSPIEL by WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART, 1791. It was produced in Vienna less than 10 weeks before his death. The German LIBRETTO is by Emanuel Schikaneder, an impresario and actor, and its mazelike entanglements are many. The gorgeous music absorbs the listener entirely, letting the plot proceed on its irrational course.

An earnest youth (Tamino) falls in love with the portrait of the daughter (Pamina) of the Queen of the Night. He is given a magic flute to enable him to penetrate the fortress in which she is held in captivity somewhere in Egypt. His companion is a comical birdcatcher (Papageno) who owns a set of magic bells (in the score, an instrumento d'acciacio), capable of paralyzing any foe. After a series of perilous adventures and tests, Tamino and Pamina are united under the guidance of Sarastro, the father of Pamina, who serves as the light to the queen's darkness. The queen and her forces are defeated, and Tamino and Pamina sing a hymn to the sun symbolizing the conquest of love and art over the powers of darkness. Even Papageno finds himself a wife, Papagena.

The Magic Flute is not only the favorite opera of many Mozart aficionados but perhaps the most complex, both musically and dramatically. A partial clue to the story may lie in its heavy pseudo-Oriental symbolism, such as was followed in the Masonic Order, of which both Mozart and Schikaneder were members. At the beginning, Tamino is pursued by a serpent, which is killed by the female messengers of the protective Queen of the Night. The multi-headed serpent was a well-known Masonic symbol. The lovers undergo an initiation similar to that of the Masonic Order, and give a vow of silence, commonly administered in the French Order of Masons in the 18th century. The Egyptian pyramid, which is the locale of one of the scenes, is a famous Masonic symbol (reproduced on the reverse side of The Great Seal of the U.S. and on the $1 bill).