SCHINKEL, Karl Friedrich
(b. 1781, Neuruppin, d. 1841, Berlin)

Stage set for Mozart's Magic Flute

1815
Gouache, 463 x 616 mm
Staatliche Museen, Berlin

One of the most impressive incunabula of the intellectual enthusiasm in the Romantic period for the Orient (and especially for Egypt) was Schinkel's stage design for Mozart's opera The Magic Flute. For the Queen of the Night it shows the Egyptian starry sky.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 3 minutes):
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), Act 2, Chorus of the Priests