The Flute Concert of Sans-souci

In 1756, a masked ball was officially held at the Dresden Palais of the Saxon Minister Heinrich von Brühl. Off the record, however, negotiations proceed with envoys from Austria, Russia and France aimed at conspiring against the Prussian King Frederick II. The Prussian envoy, Major von Lindeneck, succeeds in delivering a copy of the concluded secret treaty to the king. Friedrich consults his generals, who urge caution. Friedrich is stunned by the reaction and conceives a counter-plan. To enact it, he sends von Lindeneck back to Dresden. Yet the envoy is not entirely eager, doubting his wife Blanche's fidelity, and he must leave her behind.