The Magic Flute, Mozart’s final opera, is perhaps his most complex, a mixture of comedy and seriousness, a fantasy story on the age-old theme of good versus evil, with layers of subtle allegory.
The opera was premiered in Vienna in 1791, with a libretto, the text of the opera, written by the actor/singer/writer Emanuel Schikaneder. Mozart, already ill, was galvanised enough to conduct the orchestra, but died three months later, only 36 years old.
In the 216 years since then, Die Zauberflöte (in the original German) has triumphed as one of the world’s most enduringly popular operas. It has been adapted into numerous settings and styles, and now comes to South African audiences under the direction of William Kentridge, who used the inspiration of Victorian costuming, colonialism and black-and-white photography as the base of his interpretation.
Some preparation before heading into Kentridge’s new production is useful, as the entirety of the opera will be in German and the plot is more complex than the average Lloyd Webber musical.
Our hero is the young prince Tamino, tricked by the evil queen of the night into rescuing her daughter, Pamina, from the temple of the good priest Sarastro. Tamino falls for Pamina after seeing a picture of her, and is given the titular magic flute, as well as a sidekick, the queen’s bird-catcher Papageno, to aid in his quest.
Tamino travels to Sarastro’s temple, where he must pass various tests both of his character and his love for Pamina, as well as outwit Monostatos, the queen’s henchman, who also lusts after the princess. The love-sick Papageno agrees to undergo the challenges with Tamino, as he is promised his own true love, the aptly named Papagena, should he succeed.
There are more machinations from Monostatos and the queen, including when she appears to Pamina and urges her daughter to murder Sarastro in his own temple, in the aria of legendary difficulty for sopranos, requiring a solid stream of freakish high Fs. Be assured, though, as in any decent fairytale, good will conquer evil and the lovers will be united in a happy ending.
Voice-casting is important in any respectable opera, the register and colours of a particular voice helping to define a character. The respective forces of good and evil are thus polar opposites, the shrieking colora-tura soprano of the queen opposed by Sarastro’s cavernous basso profondo. The other characters fill the gaps between these two extremes, from Pamina’s lyric soprano and Tamino’s light tenor to Papageno’s comic baritone.
The most important allegorical theme throughout The Magic Flute is the link between the story and the rituals and enlightenment values of the Freemasons, of which Mozart was a member. The tests that Tamino and Papageno undergo represent the ritualised lessons that Masons use to teach ideals of freedom, equality and moral order.
The opera as a whole advocates, through allegory, the enlightenment ideal of enlightened absolutism, the concept of dictators governing justly and fairly through rationalism. Expect, though, to see a more cynical 21st-century take on this idea from Kentridge.