My final podcast for the Los Angeles Opera’s “Behind the Curtain” series (2025-26 season)! In conversation with my friend, colleague, and fellow opera expert Dr. Tiffany Kuo, I talk about the star-flaming Queen of the Night from Mozart’s Magic Flute, including how the music and story reflect 18th-century thinking about women and access to power—both intellectual and political. Among the topics we touch on: the Masonic rites and symbolism that Mozart and his librettist Emanuel Schikaneder—both Masons themselves—would have known, and how these weigh in on ideas about gender; the limits of Enlightenment thinking about equality and freedom; and the way staging (and cutting crucial dialogue) can radically influence the way we think about the Queen of the Night.
This podcast is in conversation with the Los Angeles Opera’s presentation of Mozart’s Magic Flute, which closes June 21!
Also available on Apple and Spotify.
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