‘O Isis and Osiris!’ The Masonic opera, *The Magic Flute*

Portrait of Emanuel Schikaneder

 

Emanuel Schikaneder, the librettist of the *Magic Flute*, as Papageno, frontispiece to the first edition of the libretto of the *Magic Flute*, 1791

 

Theater an der Wien, the Papageno Portal, detail

 

Joseph and Peter Schaffer: *The Magic Flute*, Act II, Scene 18 (now 19), c. 1793, coloured copperplate engraving

 

Joseph and Peter Schaffer: *The Magic Flute*, Act II, Scene 25 (now 28), c. 1793, coloured copperplate engraving

 

Joseph and Peter Schaffer: *The Magic Flute*, Act I, Scene 18 (now 25), c. 1793, coloured copperplate engraving

 

Sets and costumes from *The Magic Flute*

 

Sets and costumes from *The Magic Flute*

 

Playbill advertising the premiere at the Freihaustheater in Vienna on 30 September 1791

 

‘The Theater an der Wien (c. 1800)’, after an anonymous pen and watercolour sketch in the Wien Museum