Subject: The `Magic Flute' device
From: sandell@ils.nwu.edu (Greg Sandell)
Date: 1990-10-01, 08:26
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

It's a rather common theatrical device that halfway through a drama
all the apparent `bad' forces become `good' forces and vice-versa.
Here we have good characters Maddy and Donna turning bad (Donna
has become a gun moll!!) and bad characters Bobby and Audrey
turning good.

Mozart's MAGIC FLUTE (an opera) was a case of this.  Schikanaeder (sp?),
Mozart's librettist, wrote a standard `rescue plot' called the Magic
Flute for Mozart.  During production, it was found that there
were operas being produced at compteting companies with the
identical plot, so (with some desparation) they mangled the
plot so all the evil forces became good (the evil Zorastro [sp]
becomes a magnanimous father-figure, and the captured princess'
mother becomes the evil Queen of the Night).  The result is one
of the most absurd dramas with some of the most wonderful music
ever written.

By the way (if anyone's still reading), was Frost/Lynch trying
to telegraph to us that the Log Lady is the one who sent the
note "LOOK INTO MEALS ON WHEELS" to Donna?  Right after she
gets the note, the camera pans to the Log Lady, who is looking
very self-satisfied.

****************************************************************
* Greg Sandell (sandell@ils.nwu.edu)              Evanston, IL *
* Institute for the Learning Sciences, Northwestern University *
****************************************************************