Mozart's last opera
The Palau de la Música is presenting the popular opera The Magic Flute by W. A. Mozart, the last piece written by the great composer.
One of the most beloved opera pieces will get a new staging at the Palau de la Música. Much has been said about this piece, which is considered a fairy tale but also a metaphor for Freemasonry, and it has even been analysed in its historical and political context, the 1780s. It is undoubtedly all this and more. First performed in 1791, Die Zauberflote is pure entertainment and was an immediate success in all social strata of the time.
The audience at the Theatre auf der Weiden in Vienna was the first to enjoy this opera with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The play is a defence of the values of courage, virtue and wisdom.
It has two acts and takes the form of a singspiel, which is a type of popular opera sung in German that mixes speaking and singing parts – a mythical land between the sun and the moon. Prince Tamino flees from a terrible snake before three ladies in the service of the Queen of the Night save him. The prince is given a portrait of the Queen's daughter Pamina, who is said to be imprisoned by the evil Sarastro. Tamino falls in love at first sight with the young woman's portrait. To rescue her, the ladies offer him a magic flute to ensure his safety on the journey, and Papageno — a bird hunter — who will accompany him, is given magic silver bells.
Premiered just two months before the composer's untimely death, he lived long enough to briefly enjoy its success, and it remains a staple in the repertoire of major concert halls. The popularity of what became his last work was echoed by two immediate sequels by Peter Winter and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Mozart was highly prolific, composing a wide repertoire that encompassed genres as diverse as opera buffa, sacred music and symphonies. His relationship with the city of Vienna was complicated, as was his lifestyle, which went from periods of abundance to periods when he had little income and was loaded with debt. In 1790, his opera Così fan tutte was premiered in the Austrian capital and a year later, The Magic Flute itself. Both pieces were acclaimed by the public and critics, and the city, which had been very harsh on the failure of some of his previous works, appreciated him again right before his death.
With music by the Orquestra NovAria Filharmonia, it features performances by singers Sarah Zhai (Pamina), Carlos Enrique Ortiz (Tamino), Joan G. Gomà (Papageno), Romina Krieger (Papagena) and Danil Sayfullin (Sarastro).
Tickets for the concert are available at this link.