The disenchanted flute

opera and the rule of the concept

pp. 59-74

in: Robert Grant, The politics of sex and other essays, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2000

Abstract

Much of what follows was first provoked by Jonathan Miller's 1983 Scottish Opera production of The Magic Flute, which has subsequently enjoyed three revivals, including a prolonged London run in 1986. Nevertheless, productions of Mozart's great work nowadays come so thick and fast that no sooner has one's view of it stabilized, than one is obliged to revise or extend it to accommodate, or more usually denounce, some new "angle" on offer.