The Magic Flute work, with Sir Thomas Beecham conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, was completed in 1938. Both of these historic recordings have been reissued on modern recording media. Since then there have been many recordings, in both audio and video formats. The opera has inspired a great number of sequels, adaptations, novels, films, and other works of art. For a listing, see "Works inspired by The Magic Flute". The Magic Flute The Magic Flute (German: ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a
Libretto of The Magic Flute to draw a generalized observation from the proceedings on stage in order to promote virtue or condemn vice." Cairns attributes a taste for "didactic sentiment" specifically to the Viennese popular theater. Concerning "The Magic Flute" specifically, Rosen writes that it "develops ... a conception of music as a vehicle for simple moral truths." The opera's didacticism is concentrated in passages of poetry, set in the ensemble scenes, in which the characters cease to converse with each other and join in singing an edifying lesson to the audience. One example is found in the first act, just after Monostatos and his