Opera Scotland

Zauberflöte 1869Italian Opera Company

Read more about the opera Magic Flute

This was the first-ever performance of The Magic Flute in Scotland.

Being staged by Mapleson's Italian Opera from London, it was actually called Il flauto magico and sung in Italian translation (by Giovanni da Gamerra, librettist of Mozart's early opera seria Lucio Silla). The performance was far from ideal, the text being heavily cut. While the famous performers of Pamina, Papageno and Sarastro were good, the Queen of Night's arias were transposed down a tone, and even then not entirely satisfactory, and the Tamino delivered his music in a very rough style, inappropriate for Mozart. The Scotsman also suggests that Mathilde Bauermeister did not sing her advertised role of Third Lady, but instead one of the Three Boys.