Tamino and Pamina

First and foremost: happy Valentine's Day everyone! I am not the biggest fan, to be honest, because when you are single today, it is depressing and when you are in a couple, it is stressful. All the same, let's celebrate, with first  picture I took in Vienna. You may recognise Prince Tamino and Princess Pamina from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. AKA The Magic Flute. We stumbled upon this monument at complete random. I thought it captured beautifully their relationship. Of course, I could not celebrate today without Mozart's music. There's another reason why I wanted to share the picture: for me, their relationship perfectly embodies what true, lasting love should be. So here is their duet, or a part of their one duet in the opera, sung by my favourite Mozartian soprano Golda Schultz (don't tell the others) and tenor Ben Bliss. Mozart can be cynical about relationships, but not here. Yet he remains I think truthful: for love to work, it has to be teamwork.

Queens of the Night

Today is the start of Mozart Week, a music festival celebrating his work held in his native city of Salzburg. And I thought, what better way to show this blogger's love for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart than to share a picture of our last holiday in Austria and sharing an aria for good measure. So yeah, I took this photo in his birthday house, now a museum. These are two mannequins dressed like the Queen of the Night, one of the many emblematic characters in Die Zauberflöte. I also share her most famous aria, sung by Diana Damrau. One of its most iconic interpretations. Side note: which costume do you prefer?

Papagena

January is the birthday month of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and it struck me that I haven't blogged about it yet this year. A shameful oversight, especially since I have so many great pictures from our holiday in Austria. I took this picture in a park in Salzburg. Because Mozart was born there, the whole city is very much haunted by Mozart's ghost, his loved ones, as well as the many characters of his operas. So yeah, there was a statue of Papagena from Die Zauberflöte. Of course, I had to accompany this post with the famous duet where she is featured, here sung by Elisabeth Boudreault (she is from Saguenay like me)and her fiancé Huw Montague Rendall. Aren't they cute together?

La Papagena du Saguenay

Petit moment de fierté régionale pour l'amateur d'opéra et pour le Mozartien que je suis: la soprano Élisabeth Boudreault, originaire de Saint-Ambroise, a fait un album avec Warner Classics. Et la compagnie a partagé un extrait sur YouTube. C'est tout un accomplissement. Et une petite fille du Saguenay, j'en suis fier.

The Magic Flute Book

I had promised myself to behave last time I went to the local bookshop, but then I found something I had to buy for me, herr, I mean, for Wolfie. I found this book, which is a retelling of f Die Zauberflöte by Mozart. The Magic Flute. It is one of these books where you press a button and you hear a bit of music. Now it is a beautiful book, it has absolutely lovely illustrations, however I think it made serious and questionable changes to the story. I am not talking merely of cuts here: entire plot points are entirely rewritten and overall it is very different from the original libretto. Only the characters are the same, somewhat. And well, there is the music too, the lovely music. On the plus side, Wolfie has been enjoying it fairly well, at least he's been asking a lot of questions when I read it to him. So it was a good purchase. Anyway, to end this post, I have to share a bit of the score. I have decided to go for the quintet of the first act. It is literally one moral preaching and a lot of exposition, yet Mozart turns it into a charming piece.

Mozart for Easter

Happy Easter everyone! To start celebrating on this blog, I thought to put a bit of music. I did it last year and, well, let's make this another tradition, shall we? Of course I have decided to share something from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.He is just perfect for Easter. But this time, it's not from one of his masses, but from The Magic Flute. It's the final chorus before curtains, but it's all about the beginning of a new era. The Royal Opera House made this video last year around Easter and I think it is very fitting: a new sun risingand an aria that is both powerful and serene. It is not religious music (althugh it might be within the story), but this is Easter in a nutshell.

Mozarting to fight melancholy

Well, when Christmas is over and January feels dreary, like it is now, I feel like it's time to bring more Mozart in my life. Okay, okay, I listen to him any time of the year anyway, but I find it a perfect remedy for melancholy. And I am terribly melancholic any time of year. Another way to find melancholy is a good dose of chocolates. And, luckily enough, the local sweet shop sells Mozartkugels. So I buy myself a box and I eat them listening to some of his operas. I call this Mozarting. My last box dated from November, so I need a new one. Mozartkugelns are not cheap, but the shopkeeper always gives me a reduce price on them. But anyway, I cannot write a post about Mozart withoutsharing a bit of his music, so here is an (abriedged) duet from The Magic Flute, sung by Golda Schultz (my favourite soprano at the moment) and Markus Werba, playing Pamina and Papageno, respectively.

A taste for Mozart

Sometimes, you find sources of comfort and reasons to be grateful in the smallest things. A few weeks ago, I saw that I still had some Mozartkugels left in that box. (I had bought that box at reduced price in the local sweet shop, but that it another story for another time). In one bite, with a bit of music (because you can't have one without music), I was in back Salzburg or in Vienna where I first tasted them and everything was right in the world. Now they are all gone, it did not take me long to finish them. All the same, I still have the music of Mozart to enjoy. So I decided to share a bit of Mozart tonight with you. as it cannot be these chocolates. It is a piece of glockenspiel tune from The Magic Flute. Simple, yet a pure delight. You can find it in context on youTube, but here is the tune itself:

Celebrating Mozart

Today is the birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. My favourite composer, bare none. For his operas mainly, I have to confess. I consider him the greatest opera composer ever, regardless of whatever else he wrote. I celebrate his anniversary every year, mainly by listening to the arias he composed. This year makes it very special, because I have been sharing my love of Mozart with my son. Little Wolfie started knowing Mozart from the cradle, if not the womb. Because the Mozart Effect might be pure urban legend, but why take a chance? So to mark the birthday on the blog, I will share tonight a bit of The Magic Flute, the duet between Papageno and Papagena, which happens to be Wolfie's favourite so far. The "Pa, pa, pa" makes him smile and laugh. A warning: Papagena looks a bit tarty in this one, but Papageno is sang by Simon Keenlyside and I like him.

Trollflöjten

Recently, I have developed an obsession for Trollflöjten, Ingmar Bergman's version of Die Zauberflöte by Mozart. Back in the days of tape recorders, so in my teenage (I must have been 14 or 15), my parents had taped it. I had started watching it but got bored because I didn't like the fact that it was basically a stage presentation. I had seen the opera on stage before, that year or the year before, and in Vienna no less. So I was unimpressed by Bergman's take on it. Teenagers can be so shallow. And a bit stupid. Anyway, I was at the time, I am ashamed to admit. But at least I loved opera. I had wanted to revisit it, and only did recently. But then, when I did, a few weeks ago, I sure did watch it. And again. And again. As I said, it really got me obsessed.

It is not Bergman's most famous or more acclaimed movie, but it is an amazing interpretation of the opera and a true labour of love. It is also the only movie of the director I have watched so far. And I am not ashamed to say it, because how many, even among his admirers, really loved the magic flute? Beside, it only means that there is more to discover. I loved the way the story moves from a stage version to completely ignoring the stage and taking a life of its own... only to return to the stage, including intermissions and audiences. And of course you have the music. You can't go wrong with Mozart. I have decided to upload here the beginning of the first act, just for fun. Two absolutely trivial observations that yet struck me:

-It is in Swedish. As a teenager, I hadn't even noticed they have translated the libretto from German. I understand little German, but I could tell it was not the same language, having listened to the original libretto over and over again. Still, I know the story so well I have no problem to follow it.
-The cast is so darn good looking. Everybody is beautiful! Even Monostato has some kind of magnificent ugliness. When I saw the opera in Vienna, half the cast was borderline morbidly obese. During my only trip to Sweden, how beautiful the people there struck me and watching The Magic Flute reminded me of it.

Papageno

This is an image from an book (with disc I received on my birthday, Mozart raconté aux enfants. I blogged about it before. The images were absolutely beautiful. The book/disc was my very first introduction to Mozart and his work. This image was the very first look I had at Papageno, immortal character from The Magic Flute, the bird-catcher of the Queen of the Night. He became my favourite character of the whole opera. He is the most interesting one, as he has a proper story arch and a proper personality, with a good heart but not too virtuous. Papageno is flawed: he can get drunk, he can lie, he often lacks courage. But he is also not without qualities: he is certainly resourceful and he shows loyalty to his friends. And he is a baritone, which is just my voice. I did try myself as some of his arias when I was learning to sing, but I struggled far more with German than I ever did with Italian. So here is his introductory aria, sung by Simon Keenlyside. He captures very well the personality of Papageno, carefree, with a hint of melancholia, longing for a simple kind of happiness.

A taste of Salzburg

Somebody brought Mozartkugeln at work today. I managed to control myself and had just one. Not that I am that keen on Mozart chocolates, I mean sure it's chocolate so I love it, but it reminds me of my one and only trip to Austria and Salzburg, on the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death (20 years already, I am not getting any younger!). I ate it there for the first time, been eating it very occasionally after. I loved Austria in general and Salzburg in particular, so these chocolates reminded me of the place. And of course, it reminded me of the composer. I don't want to sound like Proust (which I barely read), but in one bite I was sent back to Salzburg, my eyes full of images and my head full of music. Because of a small piece of chocolate with a marzipan center.

And since it made me think of Mozart, this is just a good excuse as any to put a duet here, the Papageno-Papagena one. I worked a bit on some of Papageno arias, but I never got a feel for German as I did with Italian (basically my German is as bad as my Italian is good). But German I feel is the proper thing to listen when one thinks of Salzburg. I think I had a look at this particular duet when I was studying opera. The Magic Flute is maybe one of the most accessible opera one can find. It is certainly popular with kids as I happily discovered myself. But anyone can appreciate its beautiful simplicity.And for some reason I always wanted to sing this duet. Never had the chance.

De l'espoir pour l'opéra

Je suis allé voir une amie/collègue/cliente hier, pour . Elle est à la tête de l'organisation/école où j'enseigne le samedi matin. Elle a aussi des enfants, dont une fille qui est également mon élève. Je trouve tous mes élèves du samedi absolument adorables et bien sûr celle-ci ne fait pas exception. En cherchant avec sa mère et elle un livre d'histoires pour raconter aux enfants s'ils sont sages, la petite m'a montré un de ses livres préférés, qui est une adaptation de La Flûte enchantée de Mozart avec CD des principaux arias pour accompagner la lecture. Non seulement la petite adore le livre (elle pouvait me raconter l'histoire et me nommer tous les personnages), mais elle adore aussi la musique. Je n'en revenais pas. Mozart a des admiratrices âgées de cinq ans, que sa musique peut rejoindre. J'en avais dix et on riait de moi à l'école quand je disais que j'aimais l'opéra. Cela dit, j'imagine qu'aimer La Flûte enchantée n'est pas aimer tout l'opéra, surtout que c'est sans doute l'opéra le plus susceptible de plaire aux enfants, étant de loin l'opéra le plus féérique qui existe. Mais c'est quand même un début. J'ai pensé mettre ici les deux airs de la Reine de la nuit, lesquels sont sans doute les deux plus connus de La Flûte enchantée. Et puis c'est toujours un plaisir d'entendre Natalie Dessay. On peut aussi retrouver ici une entrevue avec Natalie Dessay où elle mentionne l'opéra de Mozart pour intéresser les enfants à l'opéra et ici un documentaire sur une production à Santa Fé où elle jouait Pamina.