WORTH NOTING ON TV

* SATURDAY

The Magic Flute (ABC, 12:30-1 p.m.): It uses animation, it offers a shortened version, and it relies on one set of players for the speaking parts and another for the singing - but still, it's Mozart.

In this two-part edition of the ``ABC Weekend Specials'' - part 2 airs May 7, 12:30-1 p.m. - several arias will be offered from this indescribably brilliant and beguiling opera about a young prince whose magic flute must help him rescue a princess and cope with the wicked Queen of the Night.

The speaking voices include those of Mark Hamill, Michael York, Samantha Eggar, and others. The singing is supplied by Bobbi Page, Jerry Houser, Amick Byram, and Christina Saffran. * SUNDAY

The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (CBS, 9-11 p.m.): A very aged woman recalls her life of struggle and triumph in flashbacks - starting when she was a young girl and capturing echoes of the Civil War. If that plot sounds like the memorable 1974 television film ``The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,'' the coincidence becomes more striking in light of an important player in this new program: Cecily Tyson, who won two Emmys for her performance in the title role of the earlier show and is also starring in this one. And both programs seem so much like fact-based dramas it may take some convincing to persuade viewers that they are not. Some people still insist that ``Pittman'' - with that potentially misleading ``Autobiography'' in its title - is a true story.

Based on the best-selling novel of the same title by Alan Gurganus, this new film is a two-parter that continues Sunday, 9-11 p.m. It centers on Lucy Marsden, a 100-year-old woman who tells a tale going back to the time she married, at age 14, a 50-year-old Confederate Civil War veteran. Diane Lane plays Lucy, and Tyson is Castalia, the captain's housekeeper and former slave, with whom Lucy forms close ties.

The impressive cast also includes Donald Sutherland, Anne Bancroft, Blythe Danner, E.G. Marshall, Maureen Mueller, and Gwen Verdon.

Please check local listings for these programs.