12-24 Dec 2006. Conducted by Fabio Biondi, directed by Oskaras Korsunovas, with Gunter Groissbock, Ingrid Kaiserfeld, Rachel Harnish and Toti Lehtipuu.

The Teatro Regio in Turin will stage Die Zauberflte by Mozart (12-24 Dec 2006). It is an opera that can be read on two levels: the fairy-tale and the masonic, which allows the audience to enjoy itself and at the same time reflect on the great mysteries of life. The choice to put on Die Zauberflte in the run-up to Christmas when everybody comes together and forgets, if only for a moment, the problems and difficulties of living and believing in a better world is an intelligent and praiseworthy initiative. But it is promising for other reasons too: for the presence of the Lithuanian director Oskaras Korsunovas, winner of the 10th Premio Europa per le Nuove Realt Teatrali, for Fabio Biondi, founder of the Europa Galante baroque orchestra, and for Alessandro Baricco. The famous Italian writer has rewritten the spoken dialogue that is inserted in the original structure of the opera, forming an organic, logical and completely original story. Baricco imagines that the inhabitants of a small town are preparing Die Zauberflte for the arrival of an important personage; the impresario becomes the narrator of Mozarts famous story and all the inhabitants of the town take part in playing the protagonists. It was like rebuilding a watch, after having taken it apart, with new material, Baricco has explained. But the watch always works. It is a work of pure craftsmanship that I greatly enjoyed. Very difficult, but very rewarding. All 11 performances of Die Zauberflte have already sold out, but 30 tickets will be on sale an hour before the start of each performance. Paolo Di Nicola