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Event
The Magic Flute
Premiered three months before the composer's death, in his final opera Mozart brings to life the quest of Prince Tamino, and the bird-catcher Papageno, to rescue the Princess Pamina. Caught up in a struggle between her mother, the volatile Queen of the Night and the powerful High Priest, Sarastro, the adventure leads them to wisdom as well as love. The Magic Flute is an ideal demonstration of Mozart's unsurpassed ability to blend layers that are seemingly contradictory into a profound whole. In this Singspeil, Mozart combines both spoken dialogue and sung drama to tell a story that, moving backwards and forward from popular and learned musical styles, ends up hovering between the sublime and the comic.
The director, Toria Banks observes: Its an opera about Enlightenment, but it can be pretty baffling. Ive really enjoyed starting from scratch: spending as much time as possible with the score and the libretto, finding my way to the heart of it.
Thats where I find Pamina. Because the other thing this opera can be is staggeringly sexist. In it, a man presides over the Temple of Wisdom, and the thing he seems to care most about is stopping women from getting inside it. He also kidnaps a young woman, and exposes her to repeated attempted sexual assault. If we see Sarastro as the great wise leader its a real problem. Except Im not sure that we should, because Mozart also wrote Pamina. When Sarastro makes Tamino take trials to prove himself, Pamina refuses to be the prize in a test of his manliness, and insists on participating in life as an equal. Then she enters the Temple of Wisdom and throws open the doors for good. Shes a special heroine.
Its the generosity of vision that strikes me most. The Magic Flute is a comedy, not just because its funny, but because its optimistic about humanity. Its been a tonic in hard times, to be honest. The story starts with a failure of heroism, when Tamino faints fighting a serpent, but it ends, not with more and better heroism, but with grace and love. Once Id started to see the initial fight as George and the Dragon, the story started to reveal layers of parable and satire: to be about where we are now. Its not a straightforward allegory, but it resonates. Its uplifting to work on, particularly with brilliant collaborators, like Chris and Emma [;;;;Bailey, Linbury Prize winning designer];;;;, and a cast full of youth and energy.
Christopher Stark will conduct the HGO Orchestra, and Toria Banks will direct ten performances of this opera between 11th and 20th November at Jacksons Lane Theatre, 269a Archway Road, London N6 5AA:
For wheelchair bookings please contact Martin Musgrave at martin.musgrave@hgo.org.uk unless you have already contacted us and the wheelchair tickets are showing as available to book.
Concessions available on November 11th and 12th only.
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LocationJacksons Lane Theatre (View)
269a Archway Road
London N6 5AA
United Kingdom
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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