In “The Magic Flute”, Mozart and his librettist, Emanuel Schikaneder, devised a fable with glorious music and a message crossed by the influences of Enlightenment and Freemasonry, associated with the search for knowledge and truth. For the premiere, in 1791 at the Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, the authors sought to arouse the interest of an audience avid for entertainment with an attractive and dynamic work. Since then, “The Magic Flute” has established itself as an inescapable classic.
Barrie Kosky and Suzanne Andrade, creators of the production that was seen at the Teatro Colón, set out to develop a language capable of achieving an effect similar to that produced by the work at that premiere in the city of Vienna. Together with the 1927 company, they devised a staging inspired by the aesthetics of the silent films of the 1920s, based entirely on animation sequences projected on a white background. Permanent visual stimuli follow one another, with images that are sometimes allegorical, surreal and almost always indebted to the comic. The characterization of the characters spares no homage to silent film icons: Papageno refers to Buster Keaton, Pamina to Louise Brooks, and Monostatos to Murnau’s Nosferatu. The spoken dialogues of the original work were replaced here by projected texts, as in silent cinema, and accompanied by piano passages from other works by Mozart.
This performance, which since its premiere in 2012 at the Komische Opera Berlin has toured numerous stages around the world, surprises and entertains from start to finish. With a meticulous work of synchronization and interaction between the projected animations and the singers on stage, visually impressive moments and an admirable fluidity in the story are achieved.
Among the singers, Peter Kellner, a charismatic and sensitive Papageno, stood out. Anna Siminska faced her Queen of the Night’s coloraturas with aplomb, while Joel Prieto grounded her performance throughout the show to create a Tamino with a warm voice and refined musicianship. Verónica Cangemi (Pamina), Rafał Siwek (Sarastro), Pablo Urban (Monóstatos) and María Savastano (Papagena) completed a homogeneous cast. The choir and the orchestra gave impeccable performances, under the precise musical direction of Marcelo Ayub.
