Magic Flute - musical- Page 2

[JasonM12480]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 9:09am

I live in Richmond, VA, and last year, a local composer was comissioned by the Barksdale Theater (a reputable regional playhouse in VA) to write a "family-style" musicalized, updated version of "The Magic Flute". He took the story, the characters, and even some of the chord structures of Mozart's original piece, and turned it into a light rock/pop musical, with spoken dialogue, and then fun songs for the characters. The three woman served as narrators and comic relief throughout (one of the three women was played by a man - very funny), the Queen was a diva with a 'tude, and the leading man had flowing blond locks, and the intelligence of a speedbump. It was well-written, and had enough sly adult humor to keep the adults laughing, and enough fun songs and colorful characters to keep children on the edge of their seats. I think, if done correctly, "The Magic Flute" lends itself very well to musicalization in other forms, other than opera.

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 10:11am

Why would you write new music?
I think it's ridiculous, new orchestrations, fine.

New Music? Unnecessary

[JasonM12480]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 12:01pm

It was a new musical - a new commission - a new work. You cannot say something is ridiculous or unnecessary if you have not heard or seen it for yourself. Plus - young audiences do not wish to sit through 3 hours of Mozart opera; they'd rather see a classic story told in modern music & modern words. Again - I was there - I can attest that it worked, and I happen to be a fan of Mozart. Like the old expression, "Everything old is new again."

[Scooter]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 12:03pm

Clips to kenneth Branagh's version adapted by he and Stephen Fry:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zGMz8OlunO0
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QGRDlXFFHzA&mode=related&search=
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GsShVTcDdZI&mode=related&search=

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 12:10pm

No, I haven't heard it.
But like the old saying goes "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"
Sounds like that's what this production was trying to do.


Just saw those clips from the Fry/Branagh film.

This looks like it's going to be excellent, a little slapstick, a little melodrama for the musical folks, more action for the regular peeps.

Its perfect.

Sorry, but even thought I havent heard whoever's version you;re talking about, I think it's a ridiculous idea unless the music is palpably better than Mozart's and I'll bet you dollars to donuts that it's not.

In fact, I'd bet my life on it.

Updated On: 3/1/07 at 12:10 PM

[Julian2]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 1:15pm

I really don't see how there's anything wrong with adaptations of previous work. Its been done for ages in the theatre.

EDIT; The movie looks AMAZING, I cannot wait!!!

Updated On: 3/1/07 at 01:15 PM

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 1:20pm

I dont see a problem with adaptations, but I just can't wrap my head around someone writing different music for this piece. It just doesn't make sense to me.

But if, as someone said, a production uses the chord structures and adapts the orhestrations, Im cool with it, im trying to be open minded about it.

But bottom line, who would have the audacity?

[Julian2]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 1:23pm

Who would have the audacity to re-write Volpone?

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 1:24pm

Although the Met's "family friendly" translation eliminated any racist or sexist themes, it was also preposterously boring.

As I was watching it, I was struck with how Taymor ran out of gas in the middle of the second act and blew some good opportunities for the fire/water scenes and the defeat of the Queen of the Night. Worst of all, it almost seemed like Taymor the Costumer was working in a completely different place from Tyspin the Set Designer -- there was no cohesion between the visuals. A lot of eye candy, to be sure, but not much else.

I work, from time to time, with Taconic Opera in White Plains. The director there likes to "modernize" his productions, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. Sometimes it works. Sometimes -- like Flute -- it doesnt. Flute is a complex little piece of work, not some facile fairy tale, and to even think of stripping it down a la AIDA is a fool's errand at best. It would become either even weirder than it already is or flatter and more boring. I dont think you could have it any other way, because there are so many counterpoint themes running through it.

(Playing the Prince as "dumb as a speedbump"? Uh... right...)

THE MAGIC GUITAR? Sorry, cant buy into it. Again, look at the story. Understand where that flute comes from and what it does... and we just change it into a guitar to appease modern tastes? Heck, let's make the bells into a drum kit and give the whole thing a metal-head shine. Woudl certainly give a new meaning to the lyrics about "music makes all men equal".....

BTW: *totally* agree about Nathan Gunn. Woof!

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 1:26pm

Oh come on, apples and oranges

[Julian2]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 1:32pm

Not if you base your argument on the idea that there is no need to adapt it because there is no way they could surpass the original music. Why rewrite Volpone when there's already a excellent script? Who could surpass the original text? Its called adaptation, not surpassation.

[Not a word, I know]

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 1:33pm

Seriously, is it? If it is, then it's not MAGIC FLUTE, it's something else altogther, as far from the original material as Verdi is from Elton John -- in which case, you might as well just do an original story instead of bastardizing a classic.

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 1:34pm

I think you can't compare the adaptation of language to the adaptation of music.

I dont have a problem with tweaking the book to Magic Flute, it deals with issues that we don't deal with anymore. The enlightenment is over (boy is it ever).

But adapting music is a different animal altogether.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 1:41pm

The Enlightenment may be over as a historial epoch, but the search for knowledge as a form of self-enlightenment isnt. And as that plays out in all of the themes in the libretto -- the sun vs the darkness of the night, the trials, the parallel story of Papageno/Papagena... again, you might as well just toss the core concept out and start with an original story as opposed to mangling this one into something it's not.

[Julian2]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 1:42pm

Its certainly a complex debate, but I choose to remain optimistic about the idea. I wish I could see the version JasonM12480 was talking about.

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 1:42pm

Its also racist and mysoginistic.

Im with SeanMartin, start over.

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 1:48pm

Its also racist and mysoginistic.

Im with SeanMartin, start over.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 1:52pm

There are ways of getting around the racism and sexism, as the new translation demonstrates. But it means creating a devil out of something -- in the Met's case, they traded "black skin" for "fat" and made a joke out of the character's body shape. An easy laugh, but is it any "better" than the original? They *were* able to slide over the sexism in the plot by doing precisely what Julian (I think? I can only scroll through the messages so far) suggested -- about the *sharing* of power. Remember, Tamino and Pamina get through the trials *together*, as a *couple*.

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 2:00pm

It was a joke, SeanMartin. Obviously.

I think modernizing The Magic Flute would be like modernizing Porgy and Bess. There's no point. The only reason to modernize anything is because you think it might have some sort of relevance to modern audiences, or you think that there's something new to say with the it.

It's a fun piece and a recognizable name. I could see someone taking the story and adapting it the way JasonM's theater company did it. Who cares? An adaptation could never usurp the original. People write operas/plays/books/etc... based on the same stories all the time. The best or most culturally relevant one is the one to live on. Look at the plays of Shakespeare.

I mean, the point remains of why bother doing it in the first place. There are better stories out there that you could musicalize. I don't think anyone's going to do The Magic Flute better than Mozart, at least not in a modern pop music vernacular. I'd be pretty impressed. I think any update would mostly function as a pseudo parody anyway.

Actually would it be okay if the update was a parody? Some sort of meta-musical about a theater trying to do a pop-rock musical of The Magic Flute? Now that could be funny, using the original music and resetting it.

Updated On: 3/1/07 at 02:00 PM

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 2:11pm

Roninjoey

*that* is a great idea. Im all for the meta-musical.
It could be excellent and funny and a great fun ride.

[JasonM12480]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 2:20pm

Since this now seems to be a hot debate...more insight from our little town of Richmond.

'The Magic Flute' is music to children's ears
By Celia Wren - March 19, 2006

It takes chutzpah to rewrite Mozart, but that's what Theatre IV has done - sort of - in the new children's musical "The Magic Flute."

This hourlong production, running through March 26 at Barksdale Theatre, presents the bizarre fantasy story that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and librettist Emanuel Schikaneder cooked up in their 1791 opera, "Die Zauberfl--te" (German for "The Magic Flute" ).

It's the tale of a plucky young prince, Tamino, who travels to the court of a mysterious priest to rescue the imprisoned daughter of the Queen of the Night.

Love, clowning, a monster, allusions to Zoroastrianism and Freemasonry, a subplot involving a bird catcher - Mozart's last opera had it all.

Theatre IV's version streamlines the narrative, removing a few of the less kid-friendly elements. It also dispenses with Mozart's music, substituting a jovial, pop-inflected score by Richmond composer Paul Deiss, who contributed the book and lyrics, too.

Now, you might think that producing a "Magic Flute" without Mozart's music is a little like walking a tightrope across Niagara Falls without benefit of a rope.

The situation seems even odder when you consider that the Theatre IV production was dreamed up as a tribute to Mozart's 250th birthday, which is being celebrated this year.

But it all makes sense to Theatre IV artistic director Bruce Miller, a fan of the classical maestro.

"It's a children's theater adaptation that we hope will ultimately prompt children to develop an interest in Mozart," Miller explains.

When they realized that the 250th milestone was approaching, Miller and his colleagues resolved to include some kind of commemoration in the 2005-06 season.

"We explored doing a bio of his life, a la 'Amadeus,' " Miller recalls, referring to the 1979 play by Peter Shaffer (later made into a movie), "but decided there weren't any themes that resonated with a lower-elementary-school audience."

"The Magic Flute's" supernatural story line, on the other hand, seemed likely to charm the Froot-Loops-and-Nickelodeon set.

This was not a new idea. Other artists have attempted to exploit the intergenerational appeal of "The Magic Flute."

In 1962, for instance, John Updike published a children's book version of "The Magic Flute." And just a few months ago, San Francisco Opera mounted "The Magic Flute for Kids," based on the Vienna State Opera's "Zauberfl--te f--r Kinder."

For their part, the folks at Theatre IV quickly realized they would not be able to stage any version of the original opera.

"We don't have the skill set to do the actual opera in any number of ways - musically, No. 1 - so that was never an option for us," Miller says.

Instead, the theater commissioned Deiss to write a show that might inspire children, in Miller's words, "to attend the opera later in life."

The new musical would still be an appropriate gesture for the 250th anniversary, Miller and his colleagues believed, given that Mozart seems to have had a hand in crafting the "Magic Flute" libretto.

University of Richmond music professor Jeffrey Riehl, who wrote his dissertation on Mozart - but who was not involved in the Theatre IV production - confirms that the "Magic Flute" text reflects "some level of collaboration" between Mozart and Schikaneder. But he also notes that "the extent to which Mozart actually wrote the text is really not known."

Be that as it may, Deiss found himself serving as Mozart's musical successor.

Despite his extensive credits - including creating the score, book and lyrics for Theatre IV's "Song of Mulan" - Deiss was somewhat intimidated by this new assignment.

"I thought, 'How am I going to avoid stepping on Mozart's feet?' " he recalls.

First off, he had to make some crucial decisions. "I battled about how to approach it," Deiss says. "Should I just take his music and modernize it? Or should I start clean with my own? And I decided it would be safer to start clean with my own."

Nevertheless, he adds, "I did tip my hat at him now and then."

For example, when the bird catcher Papageno (played by Matt Beyer) first appears in Deiss' "Magic Flute," the audience hears a four-bar motif that comes straight from Mozart. And Papageno's magic bells, in Deiss' rendering, tinkle out the same melody that Mozart wrote for the opera's magic bells.

"I wanted anyone who is a fan of Mozart's to feel that I had paid tribute to his version - or else that I wasn't completely ignoring it," Deiss says.

As for the story, Deiss preserved the essential plot of the 1791 opera, dispensing with some minor characters and simplifying the settings.

He eliminated what he saw as some misogynist elements in the original, but in general, he says, "I didn't want to Disney-fy it." Hence, the nefarious Queen of the Night (Debra Wagoner) meets a fiery fate that might require a PG-13 rating, were this a film.

In Miller's view, the children's musical incorporates some crucial philosophical themes from the opera, which was riddled with allusions to Freemasonry, the secret fraternity to which Mozart and Schikaneder belonged.

"Mozart based a lot of 'The Magic Flute' on his Freemasonry beliefs, which was a faith system of sorts, having to do with tolerance and the brotherhood of man," Miller says.

The story, according to this view, ultimately affirms an enlightened humanitarianism, represented by the court of the priest Zarastro (spelled "Sarastro" in the opera) - a place of harmony and illumination, contrasting with the realm of the Queen of the Night.

With this kind of symbolism enriching the story's humor and derring-do - and with all those operatic longueurs efficiently banished - it's no wonder Theatre IV's "Magic Flute" (directed by Susan Sanford) is proving a crowd-pleaser.

"It's been so successful," Miller says proudly. "People are eating it up."

[Julian2]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 2:24pm

Sounds cool.

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 2:54pm

Stomach curdling....

[JasonM12480]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 3:29pm

Well, take some pepto and get off your high horse. :) You'll feel better soon enough.

[whatever2]

Posted: 3/1/07 at 4:22pm

i'd like to take a stab at this; i think i see the tension here:

> You cannot say something is ridiculous or unnecessary if you have not heard or seen it for yourself.

you have to admit -- it takes balls to think you can write better than mozart. and you dont actually have to hear what's been written to know that the odds of composing something superior are ... well ... astronomical.

> Plus - young audiences do not wish to sit through 3 hours of Mozart opera; they'd rather see a classic story told in modern mu=sic & modern words.

there's the real rub -- the STORY is not a "classic" story; it's piffle. the score is a classic score.

* * * * *

so, youve got the prospect of timeless music being written-over to modernize a marginal plot. what's wrong with this picture?