The Opera: Tuesday, August 19th

Mozart's The Magic Flute

On Tuesday, August 9th, our entire class went to see the opera at Theater An Der Wien. The opera was Mozart’s The Magic Flute and after reading the libretto and discussing it in class, I was really excited to see the opera. I’ve been to many plays and musicals but seeing the opera in Vienna is a completely different experience. I’ve read a lot about Viennese culture and have learned that two things the people here really love are theater and music. When we arrived at the opera on a Tuesday evening, I wasn’t surprised to see the theater packed with locals, their children, and tourists alike all brought together to enjoy the Mozart’s exquisite music and the children’s whimsical fairytale written by Emanuel Schikaneder. Mozart and Schikaneder were Free Masons together so they collaborated to create The Magic Flute in 1791 (which contains a lot of Masonic imagery and elements of the Enlightenment). The story is about a young princess named Pamina who is kidnaped by the moor, Monostatos and Tamino sets out on a journey to find his love but must first go through a series of trials in order to rescue the princess.

Visually, the opera was completely different than what I expected. I thought it would be really old-fashioned with ornate sets and dress reflecting the late18th century fashions. Instead, the set was really simple and almost seemed like the inside of a nursery with huge, colorful doors that made up the three bordering walls of the stage. The set was fairly simple and remained the same throughout the length of the play besides for some basic props here and there (such as a ramp that doubled as a table, etc.) The costumes were bright and colorful, and almost circus-like in their style. All the supporting actors had crazy, bizarre hairdos with colorful designs in an almost modern-art style. Pretty much all the characters except Tamino and Pamina, wore these crazy circusey outfits, while Tamino wore black overalls over a white shirt and Pamina wore a simple, blue dress that could have been that of a country peasant (hardly what I was expecting/hoping a princess would wear.) The opera had beautiful music which pretty much saved the experience for me. I wasn’t impressed (or maybe just completely surprised and disappointed) at the set, style, and costumes, but the music was absolutely amazing, especially hearing Mozart being performed live by such a talented orchestra. The opera singers were also extremely talented, but my favorite was The Queen of the Night. She played Pamina’s mother but was portrayed as dark because of her strong female character devoid of a man to supervise and thus subdue her. The actress playing the Queen of the Night hit these amazing high notes to a point where no one else in the production could compare with her singing talents. Every time she came on stage, she carried this energy with her, and I immediately perked up to watch her every move and listen carefully to her incredible vocalization.

The theater itself was also something to pay attention to and admire. Kathy told me that this is one of the oldest theaters in Vienna and even precedes the huge opera house near our classroom that seems to be a historic symbol of the opera and musical traditions here. Inside the theater, there are beautiful statues lining the walls, ornate details along all the molding and trim, and traditional little balconies that line three floors of seating. The theater is really condensed but tall, with many different layers. It was clearly built centuries ago because the people must have been much smaller. One of my difficulties with enjoying the performance was that I was really uncomfortable the whole time. Back in the day when the museum was built im sure the people were on average much smaller and shorter. This caused me some problems because im really tall, must mostly have long legs and they physically couldn’t even fit in front of me, so I spent the entire opera with my legs to the side, which got pretty uncomfortable. Of course I was still able to appreciate and enjoy the opera, but next time im going for the aisle seat. :)