Director's Note

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Two hundred fifty years ago a child was born in Salzburg.  It was reported that throughout his life, he never grew up.  He was rude, immature, and childish; he was also a musical genius.  His name was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

A month or so ago my wife and four-year-old daughter were watching American Idol.  I could take only so much and went to the basement to work on a project.  I turned on the tv and started surfing the channels.  What I found was magical.  It was a musical (there was dialogue), but it sounded like an opera.  A prince had fallen in love with a princess and had to prove himself worthy.  It was funny and it was sublime.  It was human and eternal.  My daughter found me watching it and she became enthralled as well.  It was a performance from the Metropolitan Opera of Mozart’s The Magic Flute directed by Julie Taymor.  I experienced the uplifting of spirit that some of the original audience of this masterwork felt, yet its composer died a pauper.

            Mozart’s work was not fully appreciated during his lifetime.  Some believe that his infantine behavior put him so far out of favor that no one would offer him a commission.  Some believe that the jealousy of others blocked his fame. Talent that enthralls.  Personality that repulses. Jealousy.  Art.  Love.  What a recipe for a Tony Award winning play and an Oscar winning movie!

            We hope you are enthralled, and perhaps a little repulsed, by the complexities of our production as this script shatters any rose-colored glasses you may have about Mozart and examines the frailties we all possess full of the dirt, filth, and glory that makes us human.