Die Zauberflote

I watched the opera Die Zauberflote by Mozart which was done really well in a colorful and beautiful way in 2006 at the Salzburg Festival. I decided to watch this opera because the Queen of the Night seemed really cool. I ended up to enjoy this opera very much.

Mozart's music is very nice. I especially love the Queen of the Night's solo, and the bird guy, Papageno's main theme song (which has been stuck in my head for two days now). I thought it was really interesting how the characters had their own theme song, for example, whenever Papageno came on, his little flute music would play. At times, though, the music did get boring. Many times the singer would repeat what s/he said multiple times as well as draw out a sentence for a few minutes. I wanted to tell the singers to get on with it a few times. I think the point of the repetition is to show how much whatever they are saying is in their thoughts, or because it is something really important. It is strange though how a character can sing for 7-10 minutes and say around 5 sentences. In today's musicals and  films a character's thoughts can be conveyed in a 3 minute song or less.

I also liked how this opera was a love story and not a tragedy. I agree with Mozart on his notion that people enjoy watching things with a happy ending. This was a story where two main characters actually found their soul mates.

As much as I enjoyed this opera, I hated it at some parts. Most of the characters were sexist towards woman and thought that only men were strong and brave and woman were just there to look pretty and start a family. Tamino, the main character, had to go on a whole journey just to prove he was manly enough. It just really annoyed me that they made women seem weak and incapable of doing anything, while portrayed men as strong and earning and possessing women. The opera was also racist when there was the only black character (portrayed by a white man and looking like a Black Face) portraying the ugly and unwanted moor that stole the main character Pamina away. I'm fine with a black character, but they made him an ugly villain in this opera.

On the contrary, this opera was excellent because there was a lot of cool technology involved. There were flying birds and an airplane of three boys. There was also a giant monster. At the end, there was a fountain with both water and fire coming out! I was amazed that the fire did not extinguish. The coolest fire part was towards the end when some of the guards had fire coming out of their helmets. It was not fake blowing orange paper either, it was real fire. It looked amazing, and all the fire and flying gave the opera more of a reason to keep watching. Another thing that caught my eye was the costumes. The Queen of the Night had the most beautiful dresses, especially the green one she wore in her solo. I liked Papageno and Papagena's look too. It was interesting how they had messy dreadlocks and raggedy clothes. I thought each character's outfits matched their personality perfectly.

Overall, this opera was really good and entertaining. I didn't think i would enjoy opera, but I am thinking of maybe watching another one sometime because I really enjoyed this one.