The last new production of The Magic Flute I have worked on was in 2004/05 at the Paris Opera. It is great to come back to this wonderful piece after six years. Not that I had forgotten how much I love it, but seeing it on the stage of the Four Seasons Centre in Diane Paulus' production with Myung-Hee Cho's magically beautiful sets and costumes did make me very happy yesterday evening.

While we get the production ready for its opening on January 29, I feel even more fortunate to see how my little daughter Marnie discovers the piece for the first time.

It is amazing to see how the magic of The Magic Flute works on a three-and-a-half year old. It all started with Johannes (our Music Director) giving her a book containing the opera's characters on cardboard and a little play theatre for Christmas. Ever since, Prince Tamino, Pamina, Sarastro and the Queen of the Night have become very popular in our home and so has Mozart's music. Marnie shows me her Flute characters and says "Papa, I wanna listen to that song" or when I dare put on other music she objects "No, Papa, I wanna listen to Magic Flute." And yesterday, when we took her to the evening rehearsal she didn't want to go home after it had ended, insisting that it should continue. We will bring her back as often as she wants.