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Mar. 10th, 2014 03:32 pmSaturday night was the Light Opera of New Jersey's Magic Flute. I went with my mother, an opera neophyte who was super-nervous going in that she wouldn't understand anything and who was therefore super-relieved to realize that they were doing it in English translation.
The English translation was fine- a little clunky in places, but basically fine, and my mother was mostly able to follow the action. And where she couldn't, that's probably the fault of the damned opera, which makes very little sense.
I did my best to sway my mother to Team Queen of the Night, because the sudden switch in Tamino's sympathies to Team Sarastro is for me the most frustrating part of the story.
It was lightly staged, but effectively, and Mozart's music and the giant green balloon dragon lured us into a strange fantasy world of dangerous wonders that force our heroes to reveal their true selves.
The cast was highlighted by Elise Brancheau's beautiful, desperate, naive Pamina and Mark Wilson's gloriously physical, antic Papageno. Papageno was definitely my mother's favorite character. I was less enthusiastic about the Queen of the Night's arias, which are of course incredibly challenging. I felt like the singer survived them intact, but didn't use them to say anything.
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cahn and I have been arguing over my choice to rank Don Giovanni ahead of Die Zauberflote in my rankings, and nothing I saw gave me any reason to change my mind. The sense of character is so much stronger in Don Giovanni- it's peopled with a half dozen real, believable people whose conflicts are driven by personalities in tension, while The Magic Flute's conflicts well up from a source I still find elusive and dubious and meet resolutions as sui generis as the original conflicts.
The last in my cycle of three operas in five days is Wozzeck tonight. The whole week has been very exhausting. I should try to be more conscious about when I schedule things close together. I do not actually have limitless supplies of energy.
The English translation was fine- a little clunky in places, but basically fine, and my mother was mostly able to follow the action. And where she couldn't, that's probably the fault of the damned opera, which makes very little sense.
I did my best to sway my mother to Team Queen of the Night, because the sudden switch in Tamino's sympathies to Team Sarastro is for me the most frustrating part of the story.
It was lightly staged, but effectively, and Mozart's music and the giant green balloon dragon lured us into a strange fantasy world of dangerous wonders that force our heroes to reveal their true selves.
The cast was highlighted by Elise Brancheau's beautiful, desperate, naive Pamina and Mark Wilson's gloriously physical, antic Papageno. Papageno was definitely my mother's favorite character. I was less enthusiastic about the Queen of the Night's arias, which are of course incredibly challenging. I felt like the singer survived them intact, but didn't use them to say anything.
cahn and I have been arguing over my choice to rank Don Giovanni ahead of Die Zauberflote in my rankings, and nothing I saw gave me any reason to change my mind. The sense of character is so much stronger in Don Giovanni- it's peopled with a half dozen real, believable people whose conflicts are driven by personalities in tension, while The Magic Flute's conflicts well up from a source I still find elusive and dubious and meet resolutions as sui generis as the original conflicts.The last in my cycle of three operas in five days is Wozzeck tonight. The whole week has been very exhausting. I should try to be more conscious about when I schedule things close together. I do not actually have limitless supplies of energy.