Imagine a conductor barefoot on stage while conducting (without a score) 4 marimbas and drums on either side of him off the main center of stage and the orchestra is really part of the stage as singers and musicians are constantly sharing space and alternating roles or sing from the orchestra "pit." For the most part, you don't see the conductor who may be playing another instrument from the side. The music flows very organically with the acting, dancing and singing you see on center stage.
Imagine choral members, also barefoot, who can not only sing, dance intricate steps with animated facial expressions, play musical accompaniment and act multiple characters throughout the performance.
Imagine actors/singers coming off the sloping-downward stage along the side aisles and singing and performing as an audience relating to what is on stage.
Imagine a few performers assembling on the top "bridge" platform and tinkling with a metal rod on differently- and graduatingly-filled clear glass bottles held by strings to produce the magical sounding bell sounds.
Isango Ensemble turns western classical conventions of opera on its head and must have unsettled a few heads in the audience. But for some of us, kicking off our shoes and fully moving to the music and story as it unfolds - with all the emotions the arias and choral voices evoke - seems perfectly natural. This is not a performance that one needs to sit straight back and hold still for. Indeed, a silently appreciative audience that applauds after each major aria may even seem a bit underwhelming in a performance that seems to invite more vocal audience responses if we were not in a formal stage environment. This is the type of company who would probably love it if everyone could move to its dancing and music. If this performance were held in its cultural homeland - and you can imagine how this performance could have been staged outdoors with some modifications to its minimalist staging -, I cannot imagine people sitting still :) It reminded me of Matthew Bourne telling his audience that to please clap whenever they feel like it because the dancers really love and thrive on the energy of the audience response in his retelling of Sleeping Beauty by his New Adventures company where he too reinterprets traditional ballets into highly accessible and memorable contemporary "ballets" credited with bringing new audiences to ballet in the UK. The same could be said of this thoroughly "unstuffy" and vibrantly joyous reinterpretation of the Magic Flute in engaging a broader audience and especially a younger audience for whom a traditional opera might indeed be too much to sit through :)
Just in case one needs a reminder of the basic story line of this two-act Mozart's opera originally intended to have spoken dialogue as well, here is a link that has the original plot summary.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/356710/The-Magic-Flute
For the younger set, or those who want a simpler story line, here is a fun animated plot summary youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-laVXO0IYKY
The smaller venue and the intimate feel of Broad Stage is perfect for this vibrantly colorful and raucously joyful production of Mozart's Magic Flute by Isango Ensemble. There is no substitute for being in the audience in a life performance, but one gets a sense of this production through these youtube videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2am6PD7rbw for an official preview video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIdEIEhd2wQ for some behind the scenes and interview with director Mark Dornford-May.
Sung in a combination of languages including English and South African tongues, the arias remain in the original German. Some singers are stronger performers than others as this ensemble works with a variety of performers at different stages of professional development, but it is the combination of individual, choral and background voices, and all the dancing to the wonderfully mellow and never jarring musical score that sets this production apart and will be enjoyed by the whole family.
I would encourage families to see this even if this is their first opera experience. Or especially for a first opera performance for younger children.
Unlike in traditional classical operas, where the lyrics or English translation is on a side screen or above the singers, this production provided a full plot summary and all translations and the full libretto. At the Broad Stage on opening night, these were not handed to every patron but left available in the lobby. I would suggest getting there earlier and reading through the 20-page program notes and lyrics and translation. Since it is not always easier to hear all the words even when they are sung in English, a pre-reading and discussion with younger ones would be extremely helpful to help them follow the story. The entire performance is almost two and a half hours with a 15-minute intermission.
If you have the opportunity and time to do so, always listen to the entire opera on CD or at least the main arias before you watch it being performed. Here are two youtube videos of the famous aria sung by the Queen of the Night:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2ODfuMMyss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqBwe9BCj4A
Isango Ensemble's Mozart's Magic Flute is a delightful change from any Magic Flute performances you have ever seen, so try to catch it while it is being performed in Santa Monica's Broad Stage. And you will remember this production long after you have seen it :) For me, it is probably the most enjoyable, but then again, I am a cultural anthropologist who enjoys cultural translations :)
The last performance is on October 12, and tickets can be purchased here:
http://www.thebroadstage.com/magic_flute/
Photo of the Queen of the Night comes from this link.
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