Special Exhibition about the "Magic Flute"

As well as the permanent exhibition, the Mozarthaus Vienna also presents a special exhibition which changes every year and is included in the admission price. The special exhibition in 2015 is devoted to “The Magic Flute”, and sheds light on a new side of one of the world’s most performed and most popular operas.

The Magic Flute. An opera with two aspects

Two engravings adorn the libretto for the premiere of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute. One shows Emanuel Schikaneder as Papageno, the other a puzzling scene in a dark vaulted room. They reflect the two aspects of the opera, whose relationship is still an enigma today. The exhibition shows the meeting of these two contrasting worlds: the realm of Viennese folk theatre with its fairy tales, magic and mechanical operas, where the actor, singer and theatre director Schikaneder was at home, and the world of Vienna freemasonry with its fascination for Egyptian mysteries, which Mozart knew so well. Early stage sets show how, from around 1815, the setting shifted from a masonic garden with antique buildings to ancient Egypt, completely obscuring the connections between the two aspects of the opera.

Curator: Jan Assmann

You can visit the special exhibition with the regular entrance ticket.