Info
How do you free yourself from an imposed role pattern? Opera Zuid presents a contemporary staging of Die Zauberflöte, Mozart’s masterpiece about the perilous road to independence.
The story seems simple: Pamina has been kidnapped by a priesthood; her mother, the Queen of the Night, sends the young prince Tamino to free her. But as Tamino penetrates deeper into the realm of the priests, the fairy tale slowly turns into an initiation ritual… A mystical story about young people who learn to go their own way.
Mozart used a wonderful mixture of styles when composing the opera: classical arias, sacred choral parts, folk melodies. He proved his mastery in the way in which he forged all this into a musical unity: nowhere does the opera lose its dramatic power. In this production, a largely Dutch top cast brings the iconic roles to life.
Director Jorinde Keesmaat stages Die Zauberflöte as contemporary theatre, without romantic frills. The decor and costumes depict a world in which male and female roles are sharply defined. Within it, Keesmaat zooms in on the position of Pamina: a young woman, caught in a male community where Enlightenment ideals go hand in hand with a suffocating image of women. What happens when Pamina claims those ideals of personal freedom and autonomy for herself?
The opera is performed in German with Dutch surtitles.
