'The Magic Flute on the radio today'

   
I really wish I had something profound and original to write today on this 300th anniversary of the public debut in London of Freemasonry's first Grand Lodge of England, but I do not. (I had submitted a brief historical essay on the subject to the New York Times' Op-Ed Page, but to no avail.)

But here is some news from WQXR: the classical music radio station (formerly owned by the Times) will broadcast Mozart's Masonic opera The Magic Flute at 1 p.m. in its "Saturday at the Opera" series. This is the Lyric Opera of Chicago production.

Coincidence or international Masonic conspiracy? You decide!
   

‘Masonic Ideals at The Met’

     
Just when you thought The Met had embarrassed itself irredeemably, it shows it still has cultural credibility – at least among the last remaining few of us who treasure Enlightenment thinking. Next month, the Metropolitan Opera House will host a lecture presented by WQXR host Nimet Habachy titled “Masonic Ideals: Die Zauberflöte.” From the publicity:

Masonic Ideals: Die Zauberflöte

Tuesday, October 21

6 to 7 p.m.
Admission: $18

Courtesy WQXR

Nimet Habachy

Mozart’s final work to reach the stage was an immense success following its 1791 premiere, and has remained a fixture of the repertoire ever since.

Join Nimet Habachy as she takes a closer look at one of opera’s greatest classics.



The lecture will be held in the Opera Learning Center, located on the sixth floor of the Samuel B. and David Rose Building at Lincoln Center, near the corner of Amsterdam and 65th. For questions, call Lincoln Center at (212) 769-7028, Monday through Friday between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

(Hat tip to St. John’s Lodge No. 1, Ancient York Masons.)
     

‘Beethoven’s Tenth discovered in Masonic library’

  

Beethoven, by Andy Warhol, 1987.

WQXR host Naomi Lewin reports today on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday that a manuscript described as two movements of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 10 has been discovered in the archives of the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library, located in Masonic Hall, the headquarters of the Grand Lodge of New York.

Livingston Library Executive Director Tom Savini is quoted only briefly, but the report explains that the manuscript may have seen the light of day already, just more than a century ago, when Masonic archives were being transferred from the previous Masonic Hall to the current building, and may even have been seen by Gustav Mahler, then the conductor of the New York Philharmonic, who was known for rearranging certain Beethoven works.

It never has been established if the great composer was a Brother in the Craft, although the themes of some of his best known works show Masonic thinking, and some of his collaborators, like Schiller, who wrote the Ode to Joy libretto for Symphony No. 9, were Freemasons.

The 5:35 audio of this Sunday, April 1 story can be heard here.