On the various discrepancies and oddments in the "Magic Flute": I'm no expert at all on this opera, but it seems to me, from what I have picked up here and there, that Mozart wrote it as a Masonic allegory, and Masonic lore, like all such religious and "secret society" material, is itself full of absurdities. Therefore, there is no wonder that a lot of them would turn up in the opera. I like to treat the whole thing as a kind of dream/fantasy, and just relax and enjoy the glorious music. Jon Johanning // [log in to unmask]