Mysticism, secret ritual meet in 'Magic Flute' opera

In Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute," esoteric doctrine and enlightenment philosophy meet on the operatic stage to create an opera unlike any other.\nMozart composed "The Magic Flute" (actually a singspiel, or series of sung parts with spoken interludes) only a few months before his death in 1791 for the Freihaus-Theatre in Vienna.\nMozart's librettist, Emanuel Schikaneder, chose to combine a series of texts to form this opera's libretto rather than adapting a single text, as was the norm. The variety of sources he chose included the Arthurian romance "Yvain," a French novel titled "Sethos," a scholarly work called "On the Mysteries of the Egyptians" and fairy tales from the "Dschinnistan." In addition to these, Mozart also threw in his own experiences as a freemason, which shocked members of the Vienna lodge when they saw some of their secret initiation ritual on stage.\nStage director Vince Liotta, who has extensive background with this opera, spoke about the Masonic ties to "The Magic Flute."\n"The Masonic background is not so much tied to freemasonry itself as the ideas that underlie it," he said.\nLiotta said the historical background of Gnosticism and mystic teachings concerning an unknowable god and a divine feminine deity went into the opera, as did rationalist ideas of the 18th century.\n"All those ideas influence the telling of the story," Liotta said, "and there is ritual in it, but one will run into a problem determining if it is Masonic ritual, since Mozart, as a mason, would want to keep his ritual secret."\nLiotta also said even though there is a lot of mystical basis in the opera, it is not so esoteric that the audience cannot understand it.\n"Anyone who's read 'The Da Vinci Code' has a basic grasp of the Gnostic ideas in 'The Magic Flute,'" he said.\nLiotta said having to direct an opera so firmly grounded in ritual presents some problems, a major one of which is showing the characters as humans rather than ideas or symbols.\n"The characters tend to become cartoons too easily when they're not treated as human," he said. "I saw a performance of 'The Magic Flute' in my youth where Papageno looked like the San Diego Chicken. I don't want that in my production."\nVocalists working with Liotta also are putting efforts toward portraying human characters.\nKaren Kness, who plays the Queen of the Night, said of her character, \n"She's the epitome of evil: all she cares about is her lost power, and she even uses her daughter to regain that power," she said. "Her character goes deeper than just evil, though. She's also desperate and doesn't want to lose her daughter."\nJordan Bluth, who plays Prince Tamino, describes his character as "a brash, pigheaded young man who also represents the figure of justice."\n"Not only do I want to be as brash as possible," Bluth said, "but I want to contrast my character with the others."\nThe vocalists' difficulties included more than drama, though.\n"Though my part doesn't sing much, the part is extremely high and difficult," Bluth said. "Also, my character is angry, but I can't push the voice too much or I'll end up breaking a note, since the part is so challenging."\nBluth said there were difficulties singing an English translation instead of the original German music. \n"Many of the vowels' formations are different, but otherwise the difference is not that drastic," he said "That's because we have a good translation that captured the meaning from the original text."\nLiotta has a very clear goal for the opera overall.\n"I want the audience to realize that no one has all the right answers and that to lead a happy life one needs to realize three things: to always search for knowledge, to know oneself and to let each person strive for his own happiness -- that builds true harmony in the world," Liotta said. "That is the true message of the opera. In 2005 this is an important message to remember, and we must never lose sight of it."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Adam Sedia at asedia@indiana.edu.