About This Show
A divine and enduring milestone of opera, Mozart’s The Magic Flute is musically rich and
abundant in symbolism. Both fairy tale and timeless story of good versus evil, the work also
serves as a treatise on the ideas of The Enlightenment–liberty, individualism, and scientific
progress–as promoted by the Freemasons of the composer’s time.
In this critically acclaimed La Monnaie/De Munt production, which premiered at Belgium’s
famed Royal Opera House in April 2005, renowned South African visual artist/director William
Kentridge sets the opera in the 19th-century, a time of seemingly limitless scientific progress.
Kentridge’s poetic staging features his signature charcoal drawings; projected, animated
sketchbook images; and allusions to optical instruments– including stage structure that suggests
a camera’s chamber.