THE MAGIC

FLUTE
Composer : Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Production in New Delhi: 8 th & 9 th March 2025

Pianist/Conductor: Professor Guido Johannes Rumstadt

Indian Stage Director: to be announced
Singers from The Neemrana Music Foundation
Guest artistes:
Flautist
Violinist
Cello
Double bass
SYNOPSIS

This opera is about a prince who rescues the daughter of the Queen of the Night from an evil
magician. The tale is that of a journey from innocence to enlightenment.

Act I:

A mythical land between the sun and the moon The prince, Tamino, is chased by a serpent and falls
unconscious. Three ladies who serve the Queen of the Night rescue him, kill the serpent, and give him a
portrait of Pamina, the Queen & daughter. Tamino on seeing the portrait of the princess instantly falls in love
with her. The ladies tell Tamino that Pamina has been kidnapped by the evil magician Sarastro and ask him to
rescue her. They give Tamino a magic flute and magic bells, and instruct Papageno to accompany him.

Act II:

Tamino and Papageno face a series of trials, including the trial of silence and the trial of temptation. As in
other mythological texts, here we have our main heroes Tamino and Pamina, facing trial for acceptance
inspite of the challenges they have had to face. The opera overarching theme is that harmony in society can
only be achieved through the perfect union of man and woman, characterized by pure love, and strength of
character. The magic flute and magic bells lend to the fairy tale nature of the opera.
 Guido Johannes Rumstadt
Conductor
Guido Johannes Rumstadt is a symphonic, operatic, and choral conductor from
Heidelberg, Germany.
Rumstadt completed his studies at the conservatories of Karlsruhe,
Hamburg and Salzburg, working with renowned pedagogues like Wilhelm
Brückner-Rüggeberg , Klauspeter Seibel and Christoph von Dohnany. In his
early twenties, he began working as Solorepetitor in Mainz. Soon thereafter,
he took on Kapellmeister posts in Karlsruhe and Wiesbaden. In 1983 he
founded the Schloßfestspiele Zwingenberg, with performances of »Der
Freischütz«. This opera remained the heart of the festival for 19 years,
accompanied by mainly Romantic operas and a rich variety of other works
and productions.
From 1993 – 1998, Rumstadt was 1st Kapellmeister with Sylvain Cambreling at Frankfurt am Main
Opera. The following 6 years he was Generalmusikdirector of the Opera in Regensburg, during which
time he greatly expanded his concert repertoire.

From 2007 to 2023 Guido Johannes Rumstadt worked as 1st Kapellmeister at the State Opera in
Nuremberg. He has conducted countless performances to critical acclaim, premiering new productions
of Verdi’s »Otello«and »Il Trovatore«, Meyerbeer’s »Huguenots«, and Halévy’s »La Juive«, as well as
larger operatic works, including Strauss’ »Elektra«, Wagner’s »Meistersinger of Nuremberg«, »Tristan &
Isolde«, and »Ring des Nibelungen«. In 2009 Rumstadt was awarded the Professorship for Orchestral
Conducting at the Musikhochschule in Nuremberg. Since 2014 he has been Artistic Director of one of
Bavaria’s largest choral ensembles, the Hans Sachs Choir, with which he regularly performs oratorios,
masses, and concert repertoire in collaboration with the region’s leading orchestras and venues.
Following a successful series of concerts in China, Rumstadt was bestowed a guest-professorship at
the National Conservatory of Beijing, beginning May of 2016.

As a guest conductor, Guido Johannes Rumstadt has appeared at some of the greatest music
institutions in the world. Past engagements include Theatre La Monnaie in Brussels, English National
Opera, Opera North in Leeds, the festivals of Buxton and Wexford, Reis Opera Netherlands, Opera de
Nice, the Grand Theatre in Geneva, Opera de Tours et de Rouen, and a long and fruitful collaboration
with the Opera in Nantes, France. He has conducted at the Norske Opera in Oslo, the Deutsche Oper
Berlin, Opera of Cologne, Rheinoper in Düsseldorf, and the Hannover Staatsoper, amongst many
others.

In the United States, he conducted New York City Opera’s productions of Verdi’s »Rigoletto« and
Puccini’s »Madame Butterfly«, Minnesota Opera’s productions of Mozart’s »Magic Flute« and Wagner’s
»Flying Dutchman«, and for Seattle Opera, the complete Ring cycle. Additionally, he has performed at
the Glimmerglass and Wolf Trap Festivals. Maestro Rumstadt’s talent for languages and his broad
experience across many musical disciplines lends variety to a busy schedule that spans across several
continents in any given year.
Artists of international renown with whom he has worked include Diana Damrau, Marlis Petersen,
Ricarda Merbeth, Anja Silja, Mirella Freni, Ann Murray, Sarah Conolly, Livia Budai, Joseph Calleja,
Roberto Sacca, Kurt Streit, Vincenzo de la Scola, Marcello Giordani, Bryn Terfel, Klaus Florian Vogt,
Thomas Johannes Mayer and Greer Grimsley, as well as famous soloists Leonidas Kavakos, Massimo
Quarta, Lena Neudauer, Rudolf Buchbinder and Oxana Yablonskaya.
Guido Johannes Rumstadt lives in Germany with his wife Eva and their four children. He enjoys
traveling. In between conducting engagements, he enjoys teaching and arts administration.
 Karl Friedrich Schinkel - Stage sets for Mozart's Magic Flute

Karl Friedrich Schinkel (13 March 1781 – 9 October 1841) was a Prussian
architect, city planner and painter who also designed furniture and stage
sets. Schinkel was one of the most prominent architects of Germany and
designed both Neoclassical and neo-Gothic buildings. His most famous
buildings are found in and around Berlin.

Schinkel was born in Neuruppin, Margraviate of Brandenburg. When he was

six, his father died in the disastrous Neuruppin fire of 1787.

He became a student of architect Friedrich Gilly (1772–1800) (the two became close friends) and his father,
David Gilly, in Berlin. At that time, the architectural taste in Prussia was shaped in Neoclassical style, mainly by
Carl Gotthard Langhans, the architect of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

After returning to Berlin from his first trip to Italy in 1805, he started to earn his living as a painter. When he
saw Caspar David Friedrich's painting Wanderer above the Sea of Fog at the 1810 Berlin art exhibition he
decided that he would never reach such mastery of painting and turned to architecture. [citation needed]
Working for the stage, in 1816 he created a star-spangled backdrop for the appearance of the "Königin der
Nacht" in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, which is even quoted in modern productions of
this perennial piece. After Napoleon's defeat, Schinkel oversaw the Prussian Building Commission. In this
position, he was not only responsible for reshaping the still relatively unspectacular city of Berlin into a
representative capital for Prussia, but also oversaw projects in the expanded Prussian territories from the
Rhineland in the west to Königsberg in the east, such as New Altstadt Church.
From 1808 to 1817 Schinkel renovated and reconstructed Schloss Rosenau, Coburg, in the Gothic Revival style.
[3] He also rebuilt the ruins of Chorin Abbey.
At age 60, on 9 October 1841, Schinkel died in Berlin, Province of Brandenburg.
 BUDGET

The Magic Flute - March 2025