The Magic Flute

The Magic Flute by P. Craig Russell, adapted from the opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 138 pages

Most of us are familiar with at least some of the music to Mozart's comic opera, since it can be heard everywhere from Gossip Girl to Eat Pray Love to The Simpsons.  I have to admit, however, that I didn't know the story the opera tells until I read this graphic novel adaptation (although the adaptation apparently changes certain details).  Many other operas, like Don Giovanni or Otello or Dialogue of the Carmelites, have relatively simple plots that are easy to grasp.  Not so the comic fairytale that is The Magic Flute.

The hero is Tamino, a prince who receives a mission from the Queen of Night to rescue her daughter, Pamina, from her captor, Sarastro.  He is accompanied on this quest by a cowardly bird-catcher, Papageno, and given a magic flute.  But nothing is as it seems, for Sarastro is on the side of good, the Queen is corrupt, the light is failing, and the flute is the key to it all.

The art is good, and although the plot is threadbare, it is entertaining enough, and more authentically fairytale-like than most of the new wave of revisionist fairytales.  Above all, its a short, easy, enjoyable way to gain greater appreciation for one of the world's greatest musical works.  Russell apparently did a whole series of graphic adaptations of great operas, but sadly this is the only one the library owns.