"The Magic Flute is such an experience when you are a child that it lasts for a lifetime. Because this opera addresses children and adults at the same time. It is a magical piece. Bottomless." (Iván Fischer, Music Director of the BFO) After the overwhelming Hungarian and international success of Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro, a new Mozart opera is directed and conducted by Iván Fischer. The Magic Flute will be performed at the Palace of Arts in Budapest on three occasions, on 7, 9 and 11 March 2015. The Budapest Festival Orchestra impassioned and enchanted the audience of the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York back in 2011 when they gave their special Don Giovanni performance, which was one of the most fascinating, creative and bravest productions a critic of The New York Times has ever seen. Then in 2013 New York rang with The Marriage of Figaro: according to the New York Post, the opera performance “can only be described as crazy good”, The New York Times opined that Figaro – just like Don Giovanni two years before – “was a highlight of the opera season in New York”, while New York Magazine chose this uniquely rendered performance as the best classical music event of the year. “Ten years ago when the Palace of Arts opened, nobody could imagine that features of the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall with world-class acoustics would make it possible to perform even staged pieces like The Magic Flute by Mozart. This joint performance with the BFO is a fine example of the collaboration between performing art institutions and orchestras, but also illustrates how many different approaches can be adopted to one classical music piece.” (Csaba Káel, Chief Executive Officer of the Palace of Arts) It is no coincidence that The Magic Flute, Fischer’s third opera arrangement in collaboration with the Palace of Arts, was invited to Abu Dhabi, Amsterdam, Berlin, New York, London and Bruges even before its première. The Magic Flute, as Iván Fischer puts it, “materialises in the pages of a storybook, which takes us to a dreamland full of wonders that not only children but also adults who are children at heart simply love.”