A Performance of the Magic Flute

The Great Hall of the People, Beijing. Mozart tonight. After the opera, she appears above us, stepping out of a Chinese painting of heaven. She is the Queen of the Night, an Ibis arriving amid grackles. After the performance she descends into the foyer. Camera’s whir, we press forward to glimpse her. A delicate Chinese girl. We are stunned once more by the power of the beautiful to command our devotion. This is her moment, her Jupiter symphony and perhaps her Requiem. Where does she go from here? Nothing can ever match this. The powerful will be suspicious of her art, her vision of a world beyond, blood stained Tiananmen Square.