This video is an excerpt from the Metropolitan Opera's production of The Magic Flute in New York. Opera Australia is bringing The Magic Flute to QPAC in Brisbane in May 2012.
Welcome to a world where animals dance and children fly, where princes battle dragons and hope battles despair. To a world where ideas matter, and music saves the day. Welcome to a magical experience for the whole family in an enchanting new production of Mozart's The Magic Flute. Julie Taymor, director of Disney's The Lion King, has taken Mozart's fairy tale and turned it into a show that, in the spirit of the original, speaks to the child in all of us.
I just watched a clip from Opera Australia's version of this production and it's worse. Cut down pit orchestra? Keyboards at one point. I saw the lion king when it toured here and absolutely adored the production - I am so disappointed that the director and designers were not able to make this work in a way that enhances the magic of this singspiel without diminishing or trying to upstage Mozart's music. BTW - the English translation is abysmal.
stefanielorimer 22 hours ago
I think this has just turned me off coming. The concept looked so fantastic in the brochure - love the idea of big puppets - so appropriate for The Magic Flute...but what's with the constant references to pop culture? Who's got the deficit model of the 'modern' or 'younger' audience here? Do we really have to have gaga bras on the birds? or baseball caps backward on Papageno? Soooo annoying.
stefanielorimer 22 hours ago