← LA Opera Podcasts: Behind the Curtain
LA Opera Podcasts: Behind the Curtain
James Conlon's Pre-Performance Talk on The Magic Flute
00:29:18
In this episode, Richard Seaver Music Director Ja…
Loading summary
Transcript3 lines
- [00:00]
A
Foreign. Welcome to behind the Curtain, LA Opera's official podcast. Each week we dive deep into the creative process with the artists, creatives and scholars who bring opera to life. Get ready to decode the drama, dissect the music and hear the heart behind the high notes. From backstage laughs to history making moments, every opera starts with a story. In this episode, Richard Seaver music director James Conlon walks us through the history, the plot and of course, the music of Mozart's the Magic Flute. Don't miss this fantastic and Delightful Opera playing May 30 through June 21, with a show just added on June 20. Get your tickets now at LA Opera.org
- [01:03]
B
Mozart's the Magic Flute is amongst the world's most popular and beloved operas, written by one of its most beloved composers. A pseudo fairy tale, its invented mythology appeals to children and adults, philosophers and writers, casual opera goers and die hard fans. It is immediately accessible to children and adults in hearing it for the first time, yet sufficiently profound and sophisticated to have commanded the continued attention of great thinkers and musicians. For more than two centuries the flute has accomplished this despite its birth in an extraordinarily humble, if not to say down market environment. There can be little doubt that its monumentality in the history of classical music is due solely to to Mozart's greatness and the infinite magnitude and generosity of his music. Its text's authorship is disputed, although naturally attributed to theater director Emmanuel Schickeneder and stage star who also sang Papageno, he was unquestionably a talented and shrewd producer, but a man for the ages. His he was not. For many, the plot is a mishmash of ideas and effects with a confused and confusing through line and a disconnected structure. Eclectic literary sources without clear ancestry. How did it succeed in winning not just the world's approval, but its love and devotion? Three words provide the Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart the nobility of its Enlightenment ideas. Its humanity and wit, its generosity of spirit, are the hallmarks of the multiplicity of talents accorded to this transcendent genius to which the world has rightly attached itself. Beethoven considered it Mozart's greatest work. Many writers and musicologists consider it his last testament, though he completed another major opera literally at the same time, La Clemenza di Tito, and was to write the Clarinet Concerto as well as the Requiem left incomplete in the few months that remained in his life. The notion that he was consciously leaving posterity, a work that constituted a final moral statement, has been around from shortly after his death. The Passage of Time has further elaborated this perception. But has this view been reverse engineered, as is often the case with composers final works? Did the composer himself believe that the Magic Flute would be his last theatrical work before confronting death? Was a life affirming enlightenment message in the Magic Flute meant to complement the alternative Roman Catholic view of death with both its solace and terror in the Requiem? Was it a visionary way forward towards musical operatic theater of the future? Or were they none of these but simply another pair of commissions that he was fulfilling with his customary genius? Was the gentle moralizing that pervades the work meant for everyone, or only for his friends and lodge mates who could appreciate the Masonic symbolism, much or most of which remains obscure to us non initiates even today? Some of those friends might have been shocked that he had revealed those secret symbols on the stage. Was his true focus to write a work in German that would break away from the Italian language and its traditions in which he was already preeminent altogether? The last decade of Mozart's operas are masterpieces that along with his symphonies, concerti, sacred works and chamber music, would mark the zenith of the 18th century. Or rather, was his purpose to create a musical theatrical work that stood halfway between the popular and the erudite? Or to fulfill any commission he could find as he was desperate for work in the waning months of his life? Don Giovanni. Having consigned Don Giovanni for eternity to his infernal retribution, was he now suggesting that mankind no longer needed the fear of punishment to behave morally and virtuously? Having measured the breadth and depth of the battle of the sexes in the Marriage of Figaro, was he ready to call it a stalemate and propose a higher level of peaceful and productive coexistence? Was it time for Don Alfonso's clarifying lesson to the four young lovers in Cosi fantute to be superseded by Zoroastro's illuminating series of death defying trials through which Pamina and Tamino symbolically led each other to enlightened wisdom? Was the act of composing the Magic Flute some, all or any of these things? After this maddening litany of questions, it is impossible to propose an answer. It is all of these things and more. The universality of this work will be found and appreciated by by considering each of these questions as aspects in which the musical, spiritual and philosophic substance is greater than the sum of its parts. The musical innovations are countless and to cite them all is beyond the scope of this talk. But amongst the leading ones would be the forward looking freedom of form, the that foreshadows the music of the 19th century and beyond, Wagner and Strauss in particular. Another example is the extraordinary creation of Papageno the bird catcher. The juxtaposition of simple strophic songs, those written to correspond with theater director Chicanega's limited vocal range with the audacious use, when necessary, of the Italian style exemplified by the Queen of the Nights coloratura arias. One can perceive the emergence of the latter half of the 19th century in the famous scene between Tamino and the Sprecher, that is the speaker who is the mouthpiece for the Masonic realm under Zoroaster's leadership. The entire six minute scene is an open ended creative discussion which defines the musical form. It is technically a recitative with orchestral accompaniment. There is nothing new about that. But the composer uses it in a new way, opening a pathway for the continuous of uninterrupted flow of text, so called Durskompenirt in German, that will be the eventual goal of both Wagner and Verdi. Might Mozart's next unwritten opera, had he lived, have plumbed the depths of this relatively untapped form? Finally, we perceive another giant step in the emancipation and sophistication of the orchestra's role in shaping and and reflecting the opera's dramatic arc. Being an experimental work in several ways, it is not surprising that it is difficult to identify a single recognizable dramatic form. The musical heritage falls into several traditions and the dramatic material into a handful of fashionable dramatic and literary conceits. Before looking at the ultimately crucial philosophic and spiritual questions posed in the work, let us lets look first at those theatrical and literary fashions. Firstly, the rescue opera, drawing for instance from Voltaire's Candide and a long tradition of German fairy tales. A handsome prince Tamino, a tenor, falls in love with an imprisoned princess Pamina, a soprano. They must pass through spiritual tests to overcome their fear of death before being rewarded with becoming the inheritors of the kingdom and the successors to Zoroastria, the high priest of Isis. Mozart's revolutionary ideas are at odds with Masonic principles. The man and woman together as a couple will rule as equals. A daring proposition to all elements of of almost all levels of society. Secondly is the Bildungsopper, based on the 18th century literary term Bildungsroman, meaning education novel. This was dear to the Enlightenment thinkers. They felt saddled by the consequences of the belief in the divine right of kings, especially in extreme cases like King George III of England, a situation about which they could do little until the French Revolution. They at least wanted to develop a program to inspire good Leadership amongst the young princes. Another source was magic. CM Wieland featured instruments with supernatural powers. The flute Orpheus, to whom Mozart was often compared. Bells, The bassoon, harp and zither also figured in this tradition. And lastly the fictitious voyagers chronicle this often brought back so called exotic stories from Africa, the Middle and Far east. Developing a taste and a trade not just in art but in storytelling. Bridget Brophy, the British writer on Mozart, observes exploration, commerce and empire gave 18th century Europe the raw material for the exotic. The influx of objets trouvers, some of them human, moved the imagination of artists. Missionaries set out to Christianize pagan militarists and merchants to subdue what they considered savages. The message read by some of the Enlightenment thinkers was that pagans and savages might be more moral than those of Christendom. Mozart in his other German Siennspield the Abduction from Seraglio forcefully illustrates this by showing the Muslim Pasha to be the most enlightened character in the rescue Bildungs Oper, which would serve as a model for the magic fl. Musically, Mozart was free to do whatever he wanted. Schickinader, however gifted a theatrical producer he was, whatever his personal goals aside from making money, was not a match to the vastly superior imagination and genius of the composer. The fundamental tone of the Magic Flute is an Italian opera sung in German, not Mozart's first, as the Abduction from the Seraglio had been an enormous success 10 years earlier. The free mixture of musical styles employed by Mozart in the Magic Flute can be summarized here. 1. Italian Opera the basic musical vocabulary is still that of the Italian opera which he and his public knew so well. The arias, though sung in German, are in the Italian style. Tamino has two the Queen of the Night two in the grand virtuosic style. Zoroastro 2 Pamina has two scenes. The Italian Style Overture, his most complex, shows the extraordinary development from his 41 symphonies. The two extended finales to both acts, all constructed around dramatic events, reflect the three da Ponte operas. Secondly, the symphony the three Ladies are written in Mozart's best symphonic style. After they slay the dragon, Tamino faints his symbolic death and and the ladies sing a small three movement symphony. Later they will sing three quintets combining comedy and seriousness, including their own demise together with the Queen of the Night and Monostratos. Thirdly, Papagino sings in a more popular vein necessitated by Schikinadar's limited singing range, and it rarely moves out of that style except when he is singing with the other characters. Lastly, There is a very brief example of so called Turkish music. It can be found accompanying Monostatos, a servant in Zoroastro's realm. This type of very popular music in Vienna was used extensively in the Abduction from the Seraglio, appropriately of course, because the story takes place in Turquij. But generally it was used to represent anything that fits under the uncomfortable heading exotic. Monosotos, being from northern Africa, is an example. In keeping with what we presume was Mozart's desire and to create a work for the populace in their native speaking German, he adopted a practice of largely eliminating the Italian style recitative. This was the form usually accompanied by a keyboard instrument which provided audiences that understood but did not necessarily speak Italian with the running plot of the story. It connected moments of more poetic reflection or of more intense emotion and passion. The function was taken over by spoken dialogue in the German singspiel operas, as German speaking casts were reciting texts for German speaking audiences. The work is replete with Masonic symbols, some of which are known by, but many are not. The numbers 3 and 5 are ubiquitous. Mozart features brass and woodwind instruments, chords with trombones hitherto used for supernatural interventions in his Italian operas. They are now characteristically part of what we call Masonic music. The work's Masonic secular spirituality derives from a concentration of diverse sources drawn from some of the cradles of Western civilization, Egypt, Persia and Greece, perceived through European lenses. Most of us are not privy to the vocabulary of the Masonic symbols, but the work so radiates with Mozart's characteristic warmth, humanity and insight that it transcends any particular philosophy, theology or ethical system. Philosophically, the Magic Flute stands firmly in the Enlightenment, and its humanistic concepts, reason, virtue, sympathy and clarity are the cornerstones of a better life. Humankind can embrace peaceful coexistence, foster equality for all and strive for harmony and benevolence through intelligence, work and art. Mozart shows us what we could become. Through adoption of the tenets of the realm of Zoroastria's temple, we can become our most evolved selves. The composer proposes that this is best done by a couple of loving souls. In a blending of perfect devotion. Pamina and Tamino will rule as equals in a new enlightened age. Their union is a model of the best version of ourselves, that which strives. By contrast, Papageno is a simple soul. He is harmonious with his nature and doesn't strive at all. He is himself, wants to be nothing else, and is fundamentally unchanged from beginning to end. But he, no less than Tamino, becomes his fullest self in union with Papagena. Mozart, through his seemingly infinite generosity and humanity, understands, loves and celebrates both couples as if he were celebrating two complementary aspects of all humanity, including his own. The ultimate personal evolution is to be found in the loving couple, enlightened or not, which will serve as a paradigm for society as a whole. Man und veip und weib und man Reichenan die Gotheit an Pamina and Papageno tell us man and woman, woman and man note their equality, approach divinity. Now in this rather free form podcast I could not sign off without a word of explanation to my Los Angeles Opera audience. I wished to finish my 20 year mandate with the operas Falstaff and the Magic Flute. Different though they are, they are the final works of two composers whom I revere and love beyond measure and whom, alongside Richard Wagner, embody and epitomize the three composers essential to every serious opera house in the world. I could not neglect to express my gratitude to the very great artists with whom I have worked and whom I have observed performing Mozart since I first conducted the magic flute exactly 50 years ago and finally to several seminal authors whose books I took to heart over a lifetime. The writings of the great educator Boris Goldowski, one of the heroes of my teenage years Bridget Brophy, the British novelist, feminist and critic whose Mozart the Dramatist I first read in the 1970s and have often re read and to Nicholas Till, the British writer, historian and professor whose fundamental book Mozart and the Enlightenment has been a constant companion in the last two decades. HC Robins Landen book 1791 is a guide to Mozart's final year. The founding fathers of our country were deeply devoted to to an Enlightenment vision of government and the concept of the equality and rights of all human beings and to which we owe our now 250-year-old system of government. 1776 our young and as yet imperfect union today is the subject of strong criticism that it primarily served white, male dominated landed gentry, permitted slavery and excluded women from enjoying the full panoply of human rights. It is subject to criticism. Nevertheless, the implications of the Enlightenment's core concepts strongly implied a call for all human beings to enjoy those universal rights. A careful study of Mozart's operas leads to tantalizing questions. In 1791 societies there were many inequalities, inequities and prejudices that included the relatively enlightened Masonic lodges. Has Mozart found subtle ways to challenge and critique all of them, including the lodges? Would that have been appreciated by the populace who attended his singspiel primarily for light entertainment how would the aristocracy have perceived such a critique today? Would Mozart have recognized the progress accomplished but be troubled by the as yet unfulfilled promises of the Enlightenment? Was he just writing beautiful music for whomever would listen, with little thought for its effect on society, or through his infinite musical genius, subtly trying to rectify those injustices that he saw, some of which still prevail in 2026? Was it a last testament, the articulation of a prophetic ideal, or simply one of the most sublimely entertaining theater pieces ever penned by a human being? This is James Conlon, the Richard Seaver, Music Director of Los Angeles Opera. I'll see you at the Opera,
- [28:42]
A
Playing May 30 through June 21, with a show just added on June 20. Get your tickets now at LA Opera.org don't forget to like, comment and subscribe to behind the Curtain wherever you listen to podcasts and share this episode with your friends on your favorite social media. Did you know that as an nonprofit, LA Opera relies on charitable donations from arts lovers just like you? Learn more about how your support brings our stage to life at laopra. Org. Donate we can't wait to see you at the Opera.