THE MAGIC OF MOZART

How supremely appropriate for a children's book to be devoted to The Magic Flute, the first great work of music whose intended audience included children. A graceful book in three parts. The first comprises a biography of Mozart, printed in an elegant font, with wide margins and a fancy curlicue at the beginning of each of eight short chapters. The second part tells the story of The Magic Flute in black pages with white type, illustrated with large and colorful photographs of the Salzburg Marionettes performing the opera. The last part, returning to a black-on-white format, contains an overview of puppets in general and a history of the Salzburg Marionette Theater, supplemented by smaller, black-and-white behind-the-scenes photographs. Switzer's book opens with a reminiscence, and its mood spreads through the rest of the text. The description of marionettes has an aura of childhood mystery, and even the historical information in this book has a kind of fairy tale vagueness. Switzer's great affection for all three of her subjectsMozart, The Magic Flute, and marionettesis ever- present; her book is unmistakably a labor of love. (bibliography) (Nonfiction. 8+)