The Magic Flute is what the Germans call a Singspiel, that is, a play (dramatic work) with singing, like an operetta, or a musical comedy, or a ballad opera, or even an opera comique (French - comic opera). Most operettas and musical comedies demonstrate certain absurdities and absurdities in their plots, and this opera is no exception. For example, the Queen of the Night appears as a good woman in the first act, and as a villain in the second. Further, this whole story begins as a romantic fairy tale, and then takes on a serious religious character. In fact, the rites of the temple of Isis and Osiris are usually considered to reflect the ideals of the Masonic order, and various critics, writing about the opera long after the death of the author, found in the second act of the opera the most deep political symbolism. Perhaps this is so, since both creators of the opera - Mozart and his librettist - were Freemasons, and Freemasonry was not officially supported (in 1794, Emperor Leopold II completely banned the activities of Masonic lodges - A.M.). Today, similar questions , apparently, do not make much difference. Much more important is the fact that Shikander, this eccentric actor-singer-writer-impresario, who appears and disappears somewhere, ordered this work from his old friend Mozart in the last year of the composer’s life, precisely at the moment when Mozart was in extraordinary need of such an order. Mozart wrote his magnificent work with specific singers in mind, for example Schikander himself, this very modest baritone, sang the part of Papageno, while Josepha Hofer, Mozart's sister-in-law, was a brilliant, sparkling coloratura soprano, and it was for her that the Queen of the Night arias were composed. Giesecke, who may have had a hand in writing the opera's libretto (he later claimed to have written the entire libretto), was a man of scientific and literary talent and may have served as a model for Goethe's Wilhelm Meister, but he had no great stage talent. and he was appointed to the role of the first warrior in armor. As for all sorts of absurdities in the plot, they can be attributed to the fact that, while the libretto was being written, one of the competing theaters successfully staged the opera “Caspar the Bassoonist, or the Magic Zither” by a certain Libeskind, which was based on the same story that Shikander developed - "Lulu, or The Magic Flute", one of tales in the collection of Christoph Martin Wieland. It is believed that Shikander changed the entire plot already in the middle of the work, that is, after the entire first act had already been written and work on the second had begun. This is pure hypothesis, and the only evidence available is indirect. Despite the absurdities (or perhaps precisely because of them), this opera has always radiated the charm of a fairy tale and has been a huge success from the very beginning. This success did not help Mozart very much. He died thirty-seven days after the premiere. As for Schikander, he was able - partly from the income from performances of the opera, which were held with constant success - to build himself, seven years later, a completely new theater and crown it with a sculpture depicting himself in Papageno's bird feathers. That was the peak of his career, and fourteen years later he died, mentally ill, in the same poverty as Mozart.