The flow of The Magic Flute initially seems broken:
1. Night Queen charges prince to rescue Pamina
2. Papageno immediately rescues her by accident
3. Spirits lead Prince to the Sun Temple—apparently lagging way behind Papageno—singing that his goal lay within.
At this point it feels like the story is self-sabotaging: what kind of guide-spirits are these that didn't even get the memo that Pamina is fine now, thanks?
It's because their true goal all along was to get his ass initiated, you see
The whole business with the kidnapped daughter is a head-fake, overtly and shockingly discarded almost as soon as the Queen sings it into existence with the show's signature aria. The audience is cast into darkness and confusion, like seeing Janet Leigh's apparent protagonist get killed not even halfway into Psycho. We all thus enter a prime chaotic state to join the prince as he walks the path of enlightenment through Freemasonry. Er I mean the Sun Temple.
Anyway, the spirits know what's up.
While we're all talking about #pizza, what's the verdict on whether Papa Gino's, the ubiquitous pizzeria chain of my Eastern Massachusetts childhood, is named after Papageno, lovelorn fursuiter and baritone?
Wikipedia has no satisfying origin for the pizza shop's name; a cursory internet search shows no connection. I refuse to let it go. I long to know like Papageno yearns to find a Papagena to share his degenerate lifestyle with.
I call upon #Mozart Mastodon to solve this while I sleep. Bless
Jason McIntosh
jacksonmead