“The sun drives sin far from the earth!” If there is one opera that gets down to brass tacks and speaks to everyone, it is The Magic Flute.

For the first time since 2015, Iván Fischer is staging Mozart’s philosophical fairy tale that pits good against evil, light against darkness, right against wrong, courage against fear, wisdom against superstition, and revenge against forgiveness. The composer’s final work for the stage is both an initiation rite and a parable about coming of age.

“This is a work of magical power. It is unfathomable,” says the conductor-director, who is most captivated by the piece’s optimism, humour, playfulness, fairy-tale quality and profound humanism – in a word, its multi-faceted richness.

The international cast brings together Mozart specialists from the world’s leading opera houses, several of whom will already be familiar to Budapest Festival Orchestra audiences.

Place: National Concert Hall Budapest

Address: 1095 Budapest, Komor Marcell utca 1