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DIe Zauberfloete opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, director: Anna Malunat, costumes: Magdolna Parditka, Opera Cottbus

Die Zauberfloete is one of the most frequently staged and best loved operas in the world. Our production puts into question the fixed presumptions of good and evil regularly attributed to the two power structures. What if Sarrastro is not always good and what if the Queen of the Night is not always evil? The stage design is an interior. On the right, a door leads to Pamina's suite and a hatch to Papageno's room. Monostratos resides in a fragile glazed display cabinet wedged in a corner. The either-or-door at the rear simultaneously gives access to Sarrastro's office above or to the quarters of the Queen of the night below. Papagena is seated amongst the audience. 4000 suspended light bulbs can be switched to emit the golden glow of Sarrastro's empire or the sharp light of the Queen's milky way. During the final ordeal of fire and water not Tamino and Pamina are tested, but the archaic power structures of the Empire of the Sun and the Empire of the Night.