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| | 'The Magic Flute': Opera Burlesque | Arts | The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper |
 | | After losing his royal patronage, Mozart was approached by his old friend Emanuel Schikaneder, who asked him to compose a "sing-spiel," a musical theater piece with spoken dialogue, for the Theater auf der Weiden in Vienna. |
 | | Schikaneder wanted a show full of spectacle, laughs, and great tunes, and to this end, he cobbled together bits of old fairy tales -- a battle between a queen and a priest, a trial, a quest, a flute with magical powers, and a bunch of weird animals. |
 | | Scarfe's cartoony sets include a giant snake, a flying genii-toting boat (Maggie Cassidy-Brinn is the third genii in the boat on October 24 and 29), a portable pyramid, and a series of psychedelic skies. |
| www.thestranger.com /seattle/Content?oid=2405 (414 words) |
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