"Magic Flute" on YC Link

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 769, 15 April 1954, Page 6

"Magic Flute" on YC Link

M0ZART'S opera The Magic Flute will be broadcast over a link of the four. YC stations at 7.0 p.m. on Sunday, April 25, in an LP recording by ‘the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Herbert von Karajan. The performance will occupy a total playing time of two hours 21 minutes. The parts of Tat¥ino and Pamina are sung by Anton Dermota (tenor) and Irmgard Seefried (soprano) respectively. Sarastro is played by Ludwig Weber (bess), Papageno by Erich Kunz (baritone), and the Queen of the Night by Wilma Lipp (soprano), and Peter Klein (tenor) is the Moor Monostatos. In the interval between the two acts, listeners will be able to hear a talk on Mozart’s operas by W. Thomson, of Dunedin. The Magic Flute was Mozart’s last opera, and it is in some ways one of his most extraordinary achievements. It is a fascinatitig and curious combination of child-like naiveté and high sublimity, a simple and sometimes ridiculous fairy tale as well as a work of the most genuine idealism. Instead of being all of_a piece musically, as Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro are, it brings together florid coloratura passages, arias of folk-like simplicity, and some of the most noble music for the voice that Mozart ever wrote. Some critics believe that beneath its ancient Egyptian setting, The Magic Flute sympolises the rise and ideals of Free(continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) masonry, in which Mozart was interested. For others the work has a deeper meaning, showing the struggle and victory of mankind over the powers of darkness. The story of The Magic Flute in its barest form, is this: The Queen of the Night, symbolising darkness and violence, is an enemy of Sarastro (high priest of Isis and Osiris), representing goodness and humanity. Sarastro holds the Queen’s daughter Pamina captive to save her from the cruelty of her mother. The Queen sees in Tamino, a fourth character, an agent through whom she may regain her child. She sexes Tamino, who has fallen in love with Pamina through seeing her portrait, into the domain of Sarastro. He is accompanied by a fifth character, the earthy Papageno, who is a kind of Sancho Panza. Athough the Queen wins an ally in

Sarastro’s domain — the Moor Monostatos — her plan fails. Tamino falls under the benevolent spell of Sarastro, and egrees to undergo variious ordeals so that he may become a member of Sarastro’s circle. The opera ends with the successful outcome of these trials, with the union of the lovers, and with the defeat of the Queen. The Magic Flute owes its existence to Emanuel Schikaneder, an _ actor,

producer and director of a theatre named Auf der Wieden, in Vienna. In 1791, Schikaneder fell upon hard times, and was on the verge of bankruptcy. He decided to stage a "magic opera," a form of entertainment then popular in Vienna, and forthwith wrote a libretto for such a work, basing it on a fairy drama by Wieland called Lulu, or The Enchanted Flute. Knowing that Mozart worked quickly and with ease, Schikaneder offered him the libretto, which delighted the composer, Schikaneder installed him in a tiny pavilion near the theatre, where he could keep an eye on the progress of the music. Mozart began work on it in March, 1791, and it was performed on September 30, nine weeks before the composer’s death. Shikaneder took the role of Papageno himself, and though the premiére met with a cold reception the opera was soon translated and performed all over Europe, and eventually made Schikaneder’s fortune.