The Magic Flute

What was it that united twenty musicians from around the world who are now living in Rome? The desire to save a historic Roman theatre; to stop it being turned into a casino, and to transform it into an arts workshop, instead. What was it that united so many languages, faiths and cultures in a common cause? The musicians’ belief that understanding and solidarity are best shown in our daily lives, and in actions as well as words. What does this multi-cultural orchestra sound like? It sounds like today.

– And what about the performance in Athens, we are wondering?

– Papageno sings like a griot, the Queen of the Night speaks through a gang of Arabs, Prince Tamino loses his voice when he falls in love and whistles…

Α long, sweet duel between the Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio and Mozart is being developed thanks to Daniele Abbado’s mad proposal: “Βring the Magic Flute to the streets of Reggio Emilia…” At first I thought he was crazy, but later I began to listen to the opera again as I had never done before. I had forgotten the popular roots of the arias in the Magic Flute. I thought that one way to do the opera with the orchestra was to approach it as if it had never been written down but passed on orally through songs and tales across the countries of origin of the musicians in the orchestra including all the imperfections in memories and the transformations that occur when you alter melodies you hear into your own language.

Starting from this premise, I began to give each musician in the orchestra a role from the Magic Flute: Ernesto, the Cuban, became Tamino, Pap, the percussionist from Senegal, became Papageno thanks to the similarity with his name…

We finished the reworking of the first act. Our goal is to continue this work in progress as if it were a study on Mozart by the Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio presenting audiences with completed sections and open rehearsals each step of the way. For the Magic Flute, the Orchestra will be completed by three special guests: Leandro Piccioni on piano, Sanjay Kansa Banik on tables, and Sylvie Lewis as Pamina.

Mario Tronco

In Italian with Green surtitles.