Sarastro's Aria

This personal essay argues that Sarastro's Aria from Mozart's 1791 opera The Magic Flute works as a blessing and encouragement to keep pushing toward enlightenment and creation despite the risk of failure. The author places the opera in its historical context, noting the Reformation starting in 1517, the Enlightenment and the French Revolution beginning in 1789, and Mozart's financial strain in 1790. The essay describes the story's shift from a rescue mission to a quest for truth, in which Sarastro is wise rather than villainous, and it connects that shift to the author's sense of being stuck in the present day.