A Performance of Mozart's Magic Flute

On Friday evening, at the German School in Budapest, the joy of watching someone improvise and make the best of an unexpected challenge.

We were attending a performance of Mozart's The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte) by the KammerOper from Dresden. The opera premiered in 1791 and was a major success. The story of Prince Tamino who, while being pursued by a monster is saved by Three Ladies in the service of the Queen of the Night, is one that all schoolchildren should be introduced to at some stage in their education.

As a former teacher I can appreciate the difficulty a group of singers might be faced with on discovering, shortly before kick-off, that the audience will consist of many first and second class primary students. What to do? How best to cope?

On this occasion the response was top class. A few animal masks were quickly gathered together, the performance was interrupted half-way through and some children were invited on stage (to their and their parents' delight), a lion's mask was finally produced and who else but a very willing school principal had the honour of putting that mask on and joining in the fun. All this was followed by a hurriedly-choreographed dance until the entire troupe of debutant actors departed the stage to great applause and the performance resumed.

There was an additional humourous reference by name to the vice-principal, who had gone to great effort in organizing the event, and this all had the effect of making Mozart's marvellous work tangible, real, part of everyday life for young children who don't come into contact with classical music or opera very often. Almost two hours of top class entertainment. The standard of singing was excellent and it was a joy to hear the singers' powerful voices (Yvonne Fiedler, Jeanette Oehlschäger, Wolfram Meyer, Michael Brieske, Thomas Ender) fill the aula with Mozart's wonderful compositions.

I'm sure all parents and lovers of opera everywhere would have approved...