Walter Meyer replied: >Now wait a minute! It's Magic Flute that has a preposterous "plot" which >I think is best ignored while taking in the music. The plot of Tosca isn't >far fetched and actually quite plausible. (Indeed, doesn't it have some >historical basis?) Listening to opera recordings without paying any attention to the plot seems to me strange. Magic Flute is wonderful music and would be wonderful even played on a piano. But is it a good idea to know only B&W photographs of Rembrandt's paintings? Gardiner's recording of MF uses earlier version of libretto, with a lion attacking Tamino in 1st act beginning. The music is different from best known accompanying a snake! Would Margaret Price be such a wonderful Pamina (Davis' recording) if she didn't change from a young inexperienced girl (1st act) to an efficient woman (2nd act)? Is good staccato enough for the Queen of the Night? What is Papageno's 'hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm' without his mouth locked by the Ladies - an abstract effect? Why are they all singing words - to practice German? Krzysztof Lorentz [log in to unmask]