Design for The Magic Flute: The Hall of Stars in the Palace of the Queen of the Night, Act 1, Scene 6
After Karl Friedrich Schinkel German
Karl Friedrich Thiele German
Published by Ludwig Wilhelm Wittich German
Not on view
Schinkel, the most prominent and prolific German architect of the nineteenth century, also worked for Berlin’s major theatrical stages. His designs for a 1816 production of Mozart’s opera Die Zauberflöte remain his best known. Inspired by the Masonic themes incorporated in the opera’s libretto, most of Schinkel’s sets are in a resolutely Egyptian style.The pair shown here at left evokes the land reigned over by the evil Queen of the Night; the two at right are for the opera’s second act, when the princely pair Tamino and Pamina progress through the realm of Sarastro. A selection of thirty-two designs was published several times from 1819 on; the Museum’s impressions appear to be from the first edition. Great care was taken in the publication of the plates, which were finished by hand.
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