Opera in German outskirts of the city. In 1791, he persuaded Mozart to set one of his libretti, "The Magic Flute". This proved to be no ordinary "Singspiel". Though the traditional farcical elements remained, Mozart added a new seriousness, particularly in the music for Sarastro and his priests. Even more than "Die Entführung", the "Magic Flute" pointed the way forward for future German opera. The greatest German composer of the next generation, Beethoven, seized on "The Magic Flute"'s blend of domestic comedy and high seriousness for his only opera, "Fidelio", the story of a devoted wife who saves her husband from political imprisonment.
Opera Omaha and a libretto by Elkhanah Pulitzer. Noted Japanese ceramic artist Jun Kaneko has collaborated with Opera Omaha on two productions, a 2006 production of Madama Butterfly and a 2013 co-production with the San Francisco Opera and the Washington National Opera of The Magic Flute. Kaneko, born in 1942 in Nagoya, Japan, came to the United States in 1963 and has lived in Omaha, Nebraska since 1990, where he established his studio. In 2008, Kaneko designed a production of Fidelio for the Opera Company of Philadelphia. Kaneko was a founder of Omaha's Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, a residency program that