I have seen fancier productions of this opera with giant snakes, live birds, and flying singers. This production is pretty bare and austere, but the singing is superb, especially Elena Mosuo as the Queen of Night, looking like a Goya-esque Spanish infanta in black decked in veils and heavy crosses, accompanied by a retinue that reminds me of the Inquisition. The highlight of this production is Elena Mosuo's O Zittre Nicht (24:46-29:23) in Act I. Thanks for posting. I have been looking all over the internet for this!
You rather think about Velasquez Infanta? Besides Infanta was mostly little girl, I think this Queen of the night stylisation gives rather Maria Theresia in mourn vibe.
I agree with your comment on "Maria Theresa in mourn vibe". Perhaps I should have said “former Infanta". I just find her acting superb and stimulating to my imagination. The Queen of Night is often portrayed as an aggressive witch, but this persona is so human, so vulnerable, yet so powerful in a passive way. She is like a spoiled Spanish Infanta who suddenly grew up and became a queen by accident, manipulated by that mysterious man (Inquisitor...a Torquemada?) who whispers into her ear at the introduction of the aria "O Zittre Nicht".
Oof, they really committed to that description of Monostatos as a "blackamoore" with that black face. Really it's much preferrable when adaptations just ignore that part, as it's not like him being in blackface is crucial to the plot or spirit of the opera.
I agree that ignoring Monostatos being a man of colour is better than having him being sung by a white man in blackface like here. However, in a way Monostatos being black is quite important, both for the spirit of the opera and for his character. The opera is often understood as championing the ideas of enlightenment, with Sarastro and his priests striving for wisdom and self-improvement. Monostatos, a black man, is tellingly not a priest, but enslaved (although given some power as the "overseer" over other slaves). This mirrors the racist thoughts of a lot of enlightenment philosophers - Kant eg did not believe that people of colour were the intellectual equals of white people and wrote some pretty racist stuff in his day. Also, Monostatos is told that is is forbidden from love "because a black man is ugly" as he sings in his aria in Act 2 (which can be interpreted as him having internalised the racism he experiences daily). It is also quite telling that in Act 2, Sarastro basically promises Pamina to not punish the Queen of Night for trying to kidnap Pamina back and gives his whole spiel of how they don't even know vengeance in their holy halls and how when someone has failed, love with show them the way to duty. Except for Monostatos who instead gets his soles whipped... and of course all that racist treatment plays into Monostatos being easily won over by the Queen of Night. I don't think this was intended by Schikaneder and Mozart - I doubt that they in their time conceived of the character as a racist portrayal, and I doubt they saw the racist flaws in enlightenment philosophy. However, we do recognise them today, and in a production that wants to explore the philosophical aspects of the Magic Flute, the Monostatos character could be used really well to expose the shortcomings in Sarastro's character and his philosophy. And that only works if he is black, but it would obviously have to be done with a singer who is himself black rather than a white dude in blackface. And it would have to be done extremely carefully, after all Monostatos also is an example of the inherently racist trope of "the black man assaulting the white woman and being overall morally bad", so that shouldn't just be reproduced.
@@peaceblossom8 Ironically, you didn't have me in the first half until the last part of your comment saying that he should be played by an actual black person. For the first half, I thought you were defending blackface, which I would have had to disagree with, as the text of the opera does not lend itself to a critical portrayal of blackface. But I actually DO agree that you can get good insight from the character if played by an _actual_ black person if they want to keep the character that way. Similar to having Othello played by an actual black guy, rather than a blackfaced white guy as was originally portrayed.
@@Zarastro54 thanks for pointing that out - I should've pointed put a lot more clearly that I am absolutely against blackface! Not defending it at all, and I'd always agree that if you can't get a black singer (who is also up for exploring the racism in the opera) it's best to change the lyrics so that Monostatos is white and leave the race aspect out of it. I find it really shocking how long blackface went completely unchallenged in opera.
Idiotic discussion! Its mentioned in the text of the aria of Monastatos. The entire aria makes no sense if Monostatos isn't black! And this production was in the year 2000! When people was not yet so sickbrained as you two are.
On a beaucoup glosé sur l'interprétation qu'il fallait donner à La flûte enchantée, d'autant que la création de l'opéra ne précède que de deux mois la mort de Mozart. Bien évidement, l'évidence commande de faire le lien avec la Maçonnerie. Une autre interprétation est tout aussi cohérente, voire plus légitime et c'est celle que je retiens : il s'agit du drame de parents séparés qui se disputent la garde de leur fille unique. Cette lecture, qui relègue au second plan les fadasses Pamino et Tamina, a le mérite de replacer au centre les personnages forts de Sarastro et de la Reine de la nuit. Quant à Monostatos, il serait un ami de la famille que la beauté pure de Tamina réduirait à un pervers sexuel. Dans ce contexte, une intervention d'un juge aux affaires familiales aurait été à même de régler une situation douloureuse en nous épargnant de pénibles digressions musicales et dramatiques visant à légitimer le droit de garde accordé au père au détriment d'une mère spoliée de son enfant.
Did they not know "black face" isn't cool? Kind of upsetting, honestly. They're are plenty of wonderfully talented black, male singers.. maybe hire one instead of being so terribly offensive? Just a thought
Don’t worry, soon there will be “woke” versions of this opera for all of you perpetually offended people: all artists will be gender-fluid black mutes, because we can’t discriminate anyone. The wine shall be vegan latte and the Monostatos aria will be censored. Of course we can’t have Sarastro either: he shall be replaced by an obese black trans-woman, reciting the Black Lives Matter manifesto.
