I went to the Opera! Mozart's Magic Flute

[camille_bacon_smith]

 

It's a busy week around here! Went to Magic Flute at O17 fest on Friday. Strangest production I have ever seen, and it looked a bit dangerous to me. Most of the opera was performed against a flat background, on which fantastical animation was projected--dragons and mechanical talking heads, and a giant semi-mechanical spider, but also flowers and leafy vines and cascades of musical notes. The spoken bits were not said aloud but projected on the screen like a silent film. One character appeared as Nosferatu, strengthening the twenties silents vibe.

In the meantime, the characters kept popping in and out of doors set in the flat background, singing and interacting with the animation in very clever ways. It is eye-popping in the experiencing, with excellent singing, but the more you think about it, the more you question.

For one thing, I was worried about those singers suspended on their little ledges far above the stage. For another, the fact that the spacial distribution was in two dimensions rather than three made it rather--yeah, two-dimensional. It lacked interaction with a physical space that generally humanizes the characters and engages our sympathy. 

In sum, funny, very very smart and clever, I'm glad I saw it once, but I would not want that style as a steady diet.

Here is a clip!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXYVNgKV1Ec

Comments

[oracne]

The singers had safety belts - I saw them clearly when Papageno and Pamina were pretending to run.

[camille_bacon_smith]

I thought they must, but still it made me nervous!