Amore Opera Readies "Das Labyrinth" for American Premiere Pamina is in trouble. The Queen of the Night and her three ladies have abducted her in the midst of her greatest trial. Who will help Tamino rescue her so that he can be reunited with her under the benevolent eye of Sarastro? Don't count on Papageno. He's fallen prey to the bewitching sister of Monostatos, that cunning slave. With her marriage to Papageno in doubt, Papagena is jealous and alone; perhaps the time is ripe for Monostatos to make his move. Pamina may just have to rescue herself. Alexis Cregger as the Queen of the Night in Amore Opera's "Labyrinth." But first: more glockenspiel! It's no accident if the plot to "Das Labyrinth," which will receive its American premiere in a production by Amore Opera on Wednesday, sounds familiar. First presented in 1798 in Vienna's Theater auf der Wieden to great popular acclaim, this sequel to "The Magic Flute" brought together key players from the same winning team - minus Mozart. "Das Labyrinth oder Der Kampf mit den Elementen" ("The Labyrinth, or The Battle With the Elements") was conceived and written by the impresario Emanuel Schikaneder, who wrote the libretto for "Flute" and was the original Papageno. Mozart died in 1791, the year "Flute" was first performed, so Schikaneder brought in Peter von Winter (1754-1825), a German composer and violinist. Although Winter was a respected Kapellmeister in Munich and the author of highly successful operas, his brief in this case was clear: to make the work look and sound as much as possible as the original opera by Mozart. "He had kind of a thankless task," said Nathan Hull, the president of Amore Opera, who prepared a performance edition by drawing on published sources and manuscripts in European libraries. He also directs the production, which is performed mostly in German, is conducted by Gregory Buchalter and runs concurrently with Amore Opera's new English-language adaptation of "The Magic Flute." "Not only do the characters continue, but Winter references Mozart's music," Mr. Hull said. There is a huge bow to what the audience expected: the magic flute and glockenspiel. A fiery coloratura aria for the Queen of the Night that goes up to a high F. Papageno has a couple of patter songs. "You had to live up to expectations but have enough new things to surprise and delight," he said. Among the delightful details is a flock of birdlings in a scene in which Papageno is reunited with his parents and siblings - all named Papageno and Papagena - until the pa-pa-pa stutter grows into a chorus. "It's not Mozart," Mr. Hull said, "but then again, Donizetti is not Mozart, nor Rossini. There are some great things in here. Mozart's own view of Winter, whom contemporaries described as a naïve giant who was terrified of ghosts and never left the house after dark, was dim. "A child in his conduct and a beast in his way of life," Mozart described him in a letter in 1781, "who has always been my worst enemy." But the chief interest of "Das Labyrinth" is the light it sheds on the figure of Schikaneder (1751-1812) and his astute grasp of popular taste. The son of domestic servants, he received a good Jesuit education on a scholarship and later joined the Freemasons. As an impresario, he knew how to exploit the intersection of popular entertainment and aesthetic trends. The enormous success of "The Magic Flute," which by 1798 had been performed some 200 times, sprang in great part from the way it grafted a traditional mystery play onto an Enlightenment canvas. Here, virtuous behavior is rewarded in this world, not the next. One of the earliest attempts to write a sequel to "The Magic Flute" was by none other than Goethe, beginning in Weimar in 1795. Together with his future brother-in-law, the dramatist Christian August Vulpius, Goethe produced more than 80 performances of a greatly edited version of Mozart's opera in which some of the Enlightenment elements were toned down and the conflict between Sarastro and the Queen of the Night turned into a family squabble. But Goethe produced only draft fragments of a sequel, not only because he could not find a suitable composer to team up with but also because Schikaneder got wind of the Weimar plan and pre-empted it. With the proceeds from "The Magic Flute" and "Das Labyrinth," Schikaneder was able to build his own theater in Vienna, the Theater an der Wien, in 1801, equipped with the kind of stage machinery that allowed for even more spectacular sets and effects. "Das Labyrinth" ends with the Queen of the Night and her allies being thrown into an erupting volcano. "It was done on a grand, grand scale," Mr. Hull said. "It was the equivalent of mounting "The Phantom of the Opera" today." But Schikaneder's new theater also had room for Beethoven, whose "Fidelio" had its premiere there. A comparison with Mozart or Beethoven is unkind to any composer. But by presenting "Das Labyrinth" alongside Mozart's "Magic Flute," Amore Opera allows audiences to make their own judgment on Winter's music. According to Mr. Hull, there are hints of Beethoven in the choruses of "Das Labyrinth." "Some are gorgeous," he said. This is where Winter thought he could spread his own wings. Amore Opera will present "Magic Flute II: Das Labyrinth" from Wednesday through Oct. 26 at the Connelly Theater, 220 East Fourth Street, East Village; (866) 811-4111, amoreopera.org. An earlier version of this article included a caption that misidentified the singer in the role of Queen of the Night. She was Alexis Cregger, not Elizabeth Treat.