Reviewed in Brief

The Magic Flute: After the libretto of Schikaneder and Giesecke, by W. H. Auden and C. Kallman. 108 pp. New York: Random House. $3.50

Messrs. Auden and Kallman have revised in English, rather than translated, the libretto of Mozart’s opera. Every change they have made seems to be a distinct improvement. But the defects of the Zauberflote, unlike those of Von Weber’s Euryanthe, are not primarily a matter of contorted syntax and cloudy verbiage that might be eliminated by careful rewriting. Both plot and characters are incurably absurd. While we listen to the magnificent harmonies with which Mozart covered this grotesque framework, the best thing to do, perhaps, is to forget the opera has a story.

RO

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The Magic Flute: After the libretto of Schikaneder and Giesecke, by W. H. Auden and C. Kallman. 108 pp. New York: Random House. $3.50

Messrs. Auden and Kallman have revised in English, rather than translated, the libretto of Mozart’s opera. Every change they have made seems to be a distinct improvement. But the defects of the Zauberflote, unlike those of Von Weber’s Euryanthe, are not primarily a matter of contorted syntax and cloudy verbiage that might be eliminated by careful rewriting. Both plot and characters are incurably absurd. While we listen to the magnificent harmonies with which Mozart covered this grotesque framework, the best thing to do, perhaps, is to forget the opera has a story.