The Magic Flute
A Varázsfuvoláról
by W. A. Mozart
 
Conductor: Selmeczi György
Direction: Tompa Gábor
Stage design: Carmencita Brojboiu
Costume designer: Lucian Broscățean
Choreographer: Jakab Melinda
Chorus master: Kulcsár Szabolcs
Concertmaster: Barabás Sándor, Ferenczi Endre
Artistic leader of the children’s choir: Kálló Krisztián
Musical preparation: Horváth Zoltán, Incze G. Katalin, Nagy Gergő
Video: Radu Daniel
Pyrotechnics: Ledniczky Béla (Belloni)
Assistant director: Venczel Péter
Stage designer assistant: Bocskai Gyopár
Stage manager: Szabó Vincze Beáta
Prompter: Kondrát Bea, Kostyák Júlia
 
On stage:
 
TAMINO- Erdős Róbert
PAMINA- Gebe-Fügi Renáta
PAPAGENO- Sándor Csaba
SARASTRO- Köpeczi Sándor
THE QUEEN OF THE NIGHT- Vigh Ibolya
LADY 1.- Fülöp-Gergely Tímea
LADY 2.- Barabás Zsuzsa
LADY 3.- Veress Orsolya
MONOSTATOS- Peti Tamás Ottó
PAPAGENA- Kolcsár Katalin
PRIEST 1., ARMOURED MAN 1.- Sipos Endre
PRIEST 2. / PREOT 2; ARMOPURED MAN 2.- Sándor Árpád
THREE SLAVES - Kis-Lukács Bernadett, Bálint Zsuzsánna, Kerekes Mária
 
With the contribution of the choir, ballet and orchestra of the Hungarian Opera of Cluj and the Hungarian Children’s Choir of Cluj.

Hungarian Opera of Cluj
 
The Hungarian Opera of Cluj is the only professional Hungarian opera house outside the borders of Hungary (it is in Romania), and the only minority opera in the world. The repertoire includes all the genres of musical theatre: opera, operetta, musical, ballet, rock opera, concertante performances, etc.). In addition to the international and Hungarian opera, operetta and ballet repertoire, the staging of contemporary music is also central to our annual programming. Since 1990, we have presented operas by nearly twenty contemporary Hungarian composers. Uniquely, the institution has produced all the operas of Ferenc Erkel, the creator of Hungarian opera. The programme also includes The Run of Béla by József Ruzitska, the first Hungarian-language opera, which was written and premiered in Cluj. The colourful programme was enriched in September 2020 with the addition of Mozart’s Magic Flute, directed by Gábor Tompa and conducted by György Selmeczi.

In the Labyrinth
Director Gábor Tompa’s thoughts on The Magic Flute
 
I do not think it worthwhile, either in theatre or opera, to strive for historical reconstruction in a work that is not about a specific historical event. I have seen countless performances of The Magic Flute over the years, both at home and abroad, and I would say that the greatest challenge the director faces is when he tries to bring the work into the present. It is essential to find analogies that were created in a very different context, and the director should explore the contemporary meaning of the play’s main ideas, protagonists and antagonistic forces. For example, while the Freemasons were the forerunners of the Age of Enlightenment, and thus some of the most progressive intellectuals and thinkers of their time, Freemasonry today has a very different meaning, having become a kind of servant, and sometimes a mafia-like organisation, of the secret moneyed elite.
 
So, the key question in staging The Magic Flute is what Sarastro and his group represent today. A kind of monetary capitalism has ruled our world for a hundred years now. Faith has almost been replaced by profit and vested interests. People have become easier to manipulate, not only by the media, but also through their computer and smartphone. These devices have made modern man so dependent, he now believes what the smartphone “says” rather than what he sees or experiences. These, and the increasingly immoral media, in particular, are used to manipulate society. It is almost impossible to believe anything the TV stations say, because their executives are politically committed: i.e., they can be bought. They have ceased to be independent and are only helping to divide the world still further. Dialogue has been replaced by ideological discourse and radical reactions, and it is very difficult to have either a discussion or a debate on a subject. The underlying implicit intention is to erase our entire cultural memory and to usher in the total confusion and invalidation of human identity, whether it be national, cultural or gender identities. This is violence committed against nature, against Creation itself, which could have catastrophic consequences and even lead to the extinction of humanity. This is the context in which this work must be placed. It is an optimistic thought that perhaps there are still a handful of intellectuals, believers, truth-seekers, open-minded people, guardians and transmitters of culture and traditions who, even if they occasionally confront it, are in any case thoroughly familiar with it.
 
Sarastro, having reached a certain age, a certain stage of wisdom and life experience, develops a master-disciple relationship with Tamino and Pamina, who value love, marriage and the preservation of the species. I also find many other Christian ideas in the work, including forgiveness and the struggle against and overcoming of the desire for revenge. Of course, none of the characters are purely positive or negative; everyone’s actions are controversial, including Sarastroʼs. He, too, makes dictatorial gestures, though these are sometimes necessary. Monostatos, who belongs to Sarastro's group, must not be racialised in any way, because it is not his skin that is dark, it is his soul.
 
When a major artist, be it a playwright or a composer, writes a final work and bequeaths it to posterity as a testament, it is a huge test for any director. The Magic Flute is Mozart’s last composition, and it can be interpreted as a Faustian work. Faust reaches enlightenment at the end of his difficult journey. But is knowledge worth selling your soul for? In my interpretation, his journey is taken by several others in the opera: Tamino, Pamina and Papageno, who go on a journey together into the labyrinth. The focus is on the trial by fire that the young people have to pass. They need to find their own way in life, and for that they need a helper, a teacher. I know of no better form of this than the master-disciple relationship. It is important to be introduced to the different stages of education and knowledge, be it by a parent, teacher or mentor. We need to examine the path of the twenty-year-old Tamino, who is manipulated, incited to hate, taught prejudices. When he comes to Sarastro, he despises him, but later, in the process of coming to know him, he has a revelation. This turn of events is extremely Faustian, but it could also be compared to Dante’s Divine Comedy. The stage-setting is inspired by the nuclear-proof bunkers of the world’s current economic elite, who will not even have to leave them in the event of war, because they are equipped with everything, providing a world apart. Now we have this “virus experiment”, and for months now we have heard about nothing else on our television channels. This will also be staged during the overture, alongside several other contemporary scenes. In our performance, this is how the overture comes to feature the snake, which I had always viewed as a naive representation (as a snake or dragon in a concrete sense). Of course, this decision is also significant, because the snake, like the flute, also has an erotic, phallic meaning. It is an important symbol, because the two young people are just entering the age of maturity, when they have to make a decision: either become Don Juans or start a family. If Tamino becomes Don Juan, he will choose the three ladies, but if he wants love and a family, he will choose Pamina. The important question is whether these two immaculate young people will be able to maintain their purity to the end, and what they will put their talents at the service of. For example, there are theatre critics who use their writing skills only for personal attacks, and never do the analytical, interpretive work. But it is perfectly fine to tear a performance apart with arguments, and one can learn from it. So, this play is also about responsibility. Our previous Hungarian translations were not accurate, so we had to make a new version, which, though still not perfect, includes key words missing from the previous versions, such as ‘forgiveness’ and ‘holiness’.
 
Mozart believes in the purifying power of music. I would like us to make the journey together with these two young people. Although opera companies rarely enjoy the ideal situation of including a lot of singers in their twenties, because the evolution of the human voice production is also linked to age, I would like the audience to see young people on stage; young people who manage to leave behind the maddening, fear-mongering binds of today's media-manipulated world to embrace a Christian value like marriage; or even to think responsibly about the future of humanity.