Magic treat for Mozart lovers
Lovers of Mozart and specifically of his most popular opera, The Magic Flute or more correctly, Die Zauberflote, will be delighted to hear that The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden will be staging a series of performances of the same from the end of January 2008. The performances will run through all of February and some of March 2008 and early booking is highly recommended.
For those not familiar with the opera; the story, which is set in Ancient Egypt, follows the fortunes of the intrepid Prince Tamino in securing the love and hand of the daughter of the evil Queen of the Night. He does this through a series of trials and adventures that make up the corpus of the opera until his eventual triumph.
This opera is truly a delight to watch and the musical score by Mozart is a masterpiece. What is even more delightful is that the libretto is sung in its original German with English subtitles for those whose German (like mine), is only passable.
Personally I think that operas sung in languages other than the original, tend to loose something, some of their spirit or resonance perhaps, in the translation. In any case, those with a passable knowledge of German will find their experience immeasurably enriched by the use of that knowledge supplemented with the conveniently provided ‘on screen’ subtitles.
Best move fast though…tickets are selling out fast!