Papagenina's Flute

I love Mozart’s music for the Magic Flute, but I’ve never been convinced by the libretto, which was written for him by Schikaneder. I can understand the Free Mason background to the script, but there are too many loose ends. For instance: who - or why - was the “Queen of the Night”? Why was Papageno a bird catcher, was it for food or for some symbolic reason? And most importantly, where did the Magic Flute – the instrument – come from? Magic objects, like the sword “Excalibur” or the Grail,...