A point of view on the magic flute, as performed by opera coeur d'alene

The Magic Flute

I recently saw The Magic Flute, which was performed by Opera Coeur d’ Alene. It was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The play was performed at North Idaho College’s Schuler Auditorium in Boswell Hall in Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho. I attended it on Friday, September 11, 2015. This theatrical piece of art only played for two nights, which were Friday September 11, 2015 and Sunday September 13, 2015. The times for the play were Friday (the 11nth) at 7: 30pm and Sunday (the 13nth) at 2pm. Tickets for this event ran from $10. 00 to $29. 00 for students and $29. 00 to $59. 00 for general admission on both days.

The purpose of this play was to bring the audience into this fantasy world of Tamino. They wanted the audience members to just relax and like a child again be transported to a world of imagination and fun. The director also wanted the audience to join in and celebrate the history of the play and its mystery. I believe that this play certainly did its purpose. My first impression of it was “ Wow! This is definitely not what I expected of an Opera”! But it was a fun play and definitely transported me to a fantasy world. Because of all the fun parts and elements in the play, I feel it did it was it supposed to do.

The play takes place in Enchanted forest and also in a temple. The play follows Tamino as he tries to rescue princess Pamina. The Queen of the Night originally sent Tamino to rescue Pamina her daughter from Sarastro. However, Tamino realizes that the Queen is evil and Sarastro was only trying to protect Pamina. However, Tamino must go through a series of trials in order to win Pamina. The climax occurs when Tamino uses the magic flute to go through the trials and win Pamina. Also, Sarastro removes the Queen’s powers and she is defeated.

I feel that the way did the scene it added to the play’s goal of transporting you to a fantasy world. They used large columns and had four different scenes on them. They would rotate the columns when they needed a scene change. The columns were painted and lit realistically. Because of their size and texture, it created a new reality and felt like I was in Tamino’s world. Because these columns were not just painted, they had additional decor on them, such as lights on the inside, it made it look like they were actually in a temple or in a forest. Because of these things, I feel the scenes helped made the play’s goal.

However, there was one aspect of the play that I feel did not help complete it’s goal and actually took away from the nice scenery. It was the dancers. They were at one point supposed to be fairies, but then at the beginning of the play, they turned to a monster that Tamino was running from, which at first, I didn’t know that’s what they were supposed to be. When they played the monster, they simply danced in a line, in the same costumes they were fairies in. Then later they turned pack to playing fairies. For one thing, their costumes didn’t really seem like fairies, they seemed more like princesses. There was also one shirtless male “ fairy”, which was quite distracting. Because the dancers seemed unrealistic and didn’t add much to the play, I feel they took away from the play’s goal.

I feel that despite some distracting elements, The Magic Flute was worth doing. It provided light fun, fantasy. The scenery transported you to the fantasy world, which was its goal. Because it achieved its goal, it was worth doing. However, just looking at for intellectual or artistic meaning that was hard to find and some may say that it’s not worth doing it for that reason. But I feel it was worth doing because it achieved it’s goal and wasn’t trying to have some meaning.

I enjoyed watching The Magic Flute. It gave me a fun time for a few hours. I would recommend it to anyone who just wants to have a good time. I would not recommend it for those who want something with deep meaning, because that’s not what it was trying to be. But overall, I would go see it again and recommend it to specific people.