Die Zauberflöte
Opera

Grand opera in two acts
Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Text by Emanuel Schikaneder

Resumption 29.11.2025

  • Eine Szene aus Die Zauberflöte
    © Ingo Hoehn
  • Eine Szene aus Die Zauberflöte
    © Ingo Höhn
  • Eine Szene aus Die Zauberflöte
    © Ingo Hoehn
  • Approx. 3 hours including break
  • Interesting for people aged 10+
  • In German language
  • With German surtitles
  • With English surtitles

Magic on a wooden stage

Tamino is to rescue a kidnapped princess. Accompanied by the bird catcher Papageno, equipped with a magic flute and a glockenspiel, he learns to distinguish between good and evil. In the end, light and reason triumph over the realm of the Queen of the Night. After stints at the Metropolitan Opera New York and with shooting star Johanna Wallroth as Pamina, this globally acclaimed production of Mozart's most famous opera returns to Basel.

Simon McBurney gently takes the audience into the realm of ingenious tricks, where everything is highly imaginative and endearingly simple - and where the visibility of the tricks only adds to the magic.

The New York Times

  • Musikalische Leitung –
    Jörg Halubek,
    (29.11.2025 / 14.12.2025 / 21.12.2025 / 26.12.2025 / 30.12.2025 / 03.01.2026 / 17.01.2026 / 17.02.2026 / 20.02.2026 / 07.03.2026),
    Thomas Wise
    (06.12.2025 / 11.03.2026 / 15.03.2026)
  • Inszenierung –
  • Szenische Einstudierung –
  • Foley Coach / Mitarbeit szenische Einstudierung –
  • Movement Director –
  • Bühne –
  • Kostüme –
  • Videodesign –
  • Lichtdesign –
  • Sounddesign –
  • Chorleitung –
  • Einstudierung Knabenkantorei –
    Rolf Herter,
    (29.11.2025 / 06.12.2025 / 14.12.2025 / 21.12.2025 / 26.12.2025 / 30.12.2025 / 03.01.2026 / 17.01.2026 / 17.02.2026 / 20.02.2026 / 07.03.2026 / 11.03.2026 / 15.03.2026),
    Oliver Rudin
  • Dramaturgie –

  • Sarastro –
  • Tamino –
    Ronan Caillet,
    (29.11.2025 / 06.12.2025 / 14.12.2025 / 21.12.2025 / 26.12.2025 / 30.12.2025 / 03.01.2026 / 17.01.2026 / 11.03.2026 / 15.03.2026),
    Ervin Ahmeti
    (17.02.2026 / 20.02.2026 / 07.03.2026)
  • Königin der Nacht –
  • Pamina, ihre Tochter –
    Johanna Wallroth,
    (29.11.2025 / 06.12.2025 / 14.12.2025 / 21.12.2025 / 17.02.2026 / 20.02.2026),
    Harpa Ósk Björnsdóttir
    (26.12.2025 / 30.12.2025 / 03.01.2026 / 17.01.2026 / 07.03.2026 / 11.03.2026 / 15.03.2026)
  • Erste Dame –
  • Zweite Dame –
  • Dritte Dame –
  • Drei Knaben –
    Solist der Knabenkantorei Basel
  • Papagena –
    Harpa Ósk Björnsdóttir,
    (29.11.2025 / 06.12.2025 / 14.12.2025 / 21.12.2025 / 17.02.2026 / 20.02.2026),
    N. N.
    (26.12.2025 / 30.12.2025 / 03.01.2026 / 17.01.2026 / 07.03.2026 / 11.03.2026 / 15.03.2026)
  • Papageno –
  • Monostatos –
  • Erster Priester/Zweiter Geharnischter –
  • Zweiter Priester/Erster Geharnischter –
    Ervin Ahmeti,
    (29.11.2025 / 06.12.2025 / 14.12.2025 / 21.12.2025 / 26.12.2025 / 30.12.2025 / 03.01.2026 / 17.01.2026 / 11.03.2026 / 15.03.2026),
    N. N.
    (17.02.2026 / 20.02.2026 / 07.03.2026)
  • Live-Zeichnungen –
  • Foley Künstlerin –
    Jeanne Larrouturou
  • Performer*innen –
    Lia Schädler,
    Simea Calveti,
    Lea Iannone,
    Anais Lhérieau,
    Eva Krause,
    Maxime Nourissat,
    Mukdanin Phongpachith,
    Igor Mamlenkov Borisov,
    Simon Thöni
  • Chor des Theater Basel
  • Sinfonieorchester Basel

With the kind support of Kantonsspital Baselland and Novartis

A co-production: De Nationale Opera Amsterdam, English National Opera and Festival d'Aix-en-Provence

on 25 November 2025

There will be live audio description for people with impaired vision on the following dates: Sun 17/10/21 and Sat 05/02/22.

If you would like to read more about accessibility, you can do so on our information page:

Accessibility

Together with the dramaturgy department, the Basel Kulturhaus Bider&Tanner has been curating the book table for our plays for many years. Now this selection of books, CDs, DVDs, catalogues and sheet music can be accessed at any time in the online shop. It's worth browsing regularly.

The Magic Flute

Listen to the ‹introduction to go› for productions on Grossen Bühne and at the Schauspielhaus! Subscribe to our podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts. You can find all episodes in our Media center. More

Mediathek

Regula Mühlemann is blessed with a wonderfully fine, bright voice, which she also knows how to use in the 'Magic Flute'. She leads her soprano in a natural-looking and all the more fascinating melodic flow.
Basler Zeitung
What a contrast: instead of in the spotlight at the world's most important opera festival, she now sang in front of an audience of 15 - but worthy of Salzburg: perfect intonation, radiant colours, intoxicating effortlessness, intelligently shaped lines without mannerisms, tasteful Mozart singing, as she has already shown on her two Mozart CDs. But Kai Kluge, the Tamino at her side, didn't have to hide a bit either: he has a round, warm timbre as a basic colour up to the highest heights, but also a nice dose of metal when the situation demands it. André Morsch sang an appealingly solid Papageno, while Rainelle Krause's Queen of the Night not only proved to be secure in her high notes and colouratura, but also put a lot of cutting sharpness into her revenge aria.
BZ
His [Simon McBurney's] empty, black stage is abstract. In the centre, a movable stage floor provides steep mountain terrain or cave-like shelter. This puts the performers centre stage. And the lively ensemble centred around the Swiss soprano Regula Mühlemann as Pamina is a vocal delight.
SRF 2 Culture
The high quality of this directorial work is reflected in the fact that it does justice to the different levels of this difficult piece: from opulent folk and Punch and Judy theatre with its passion for illusion and technical gimmicks to an oratorio dealing with a religious-philosophical context. But even where Mozart and Schikaneder go very abstract, McBurney's theatre remains comprehensible and vivid.
Badische Zeitung
Theater Basel presents a 'Magic Flute' that is as wonderfully staged as it is sung and has the makings of a big hit - if only the audience had the chance to go wild.
City Scribe