Word: fluting
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...developed into one of the most creative companies in the world. An opera composer himself (Penelope, School for Wives), Liebermann commissions two new operas a year, lets producers and directors follow their own imaginative flights. Currently, two new productions - a brilliant revival of Mozart's The Magic Flute and the premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti's first major stage work in five years - are proving the wisdom of such artistic generosity...
Elfin and Chinese. The Mozart was assigned to Peter Ustinov. Directing a full-length opera for the first time, he tackled The Magic Flute with warnings ringing in his ears. "Some pointed out that it was the most difficult opera of all to stage," said Ustinov. Their point was well taken, since The Magic Flute is a stylistic hodgepodge: there are dazzling coloratura arias, sunny folk songs and slapstick scenes. It is a curious melange, and the fact that it is based on a solemn Masonic morality play only adds to the confusion...
...what's on the surface." It turned out to be a poetic, elfin romp, somewhat in the spirit of Beni Montresor's enchanting 1966 production for the New York City Opera. Said Ustinov: "Too many directors try to make another Parsifal out of The Magic Flute...
...settled on an approach that he compared to Chinese theater. "In the Chinese theater, a man crosses a river without there being a river on the stage," he says. "A work like The Magic Flute should lead everyone to the depth of his own temperament, and so I prefer to have the public imagine the river." There is no river to imagine in Ustinov's Magic Flute, but there is much else. Sarastro's temple of wisdom is suggested by four golden columns and a clear egg-yolk backdrop rather than the usual bombastic temple architecture. The other...
...does play the flute for Marcus one night. And Marcus, not totally bereft of talent, plays the piano to accompany her. They fall in love, of course, and it's a scene that is something to see. The passion of two middle-aged failures finally breaking through the lone-liness of their lives can be much more exciting than Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway playing an erotic game of chess...