The genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was at full force when he wrote “The Magic Flute” to a libretto by his friend Emanuel Schickaneder. Both comic and serious in Mozart's way, the music has all the charm, wit and depth of this composer at his best. The opera's words and music are filled with symbolism of Viennese free-masonry, a short-lived idealistic movement nearing its end when the opera was first presented in 1791.
2 comments:
Craig Verm (Papageno) is my vocal coach's husband, and travels the country performing professionally. He's known among the voice majors for being mysterious and ridiculously attractive. We used a large poster of him as a prop in our Sophomore Convocation last year, during a number where a distraught bartender dreamed of stealing him from her; he got lots of laughs. Craig was in the audience.
Unfortunately, I was unable to see this show last weekend, but I intend to see it the next. We owe it to him, I think.
I think the article was a little unclear about whether or not the choice to stage a play within a play was the creative team's choice or if that choice was made by Mozart and written into the writing. In any case, I think staging a play within a play can be a delicate thing. Yes, sometimes it is funny and offers an extra layer that the audience needs to get to really indulge in the action of the story. But it also seems there is line where the content of the play within a play could be too far removed from the audience, not allowing them to connect with the material fully. Perhaps that is why the critic felt that the staging grasped the more somber parts of the opera.
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