A New Year’s Day Opera ‘on the cusp of sexual awakening’
OperaThe Magic Flute from RCM
Who doesn’t have memories of their time at school – a place of new discoveries, encounters with authority and perhaps the odd day dream at the back of the class? The Royal College of Music’s new production sets The Magic Flute in a secondary school and a dreamscape of hidden desires. Outstanding director Polly Graham explains this is the perfect backdrop for protagonists who are ‘on the cusp of sexual awakening, grappling with big intellectual ideas, and at a place in their lives where things happen for the first time, and where interactions with adults can be fraught.’ Michael Rosewell conducts a wealth of young talent on stage and in the pit – all not so long out of school themselves.
The Plot: Mozart’s last opera recounts the trials and tribulations of two opposing yet complementary young couples – Tamino and Pamina and Papageno and Papagena – who, in their search for love, journey through darkness to reach light and happiness.
Sung in German. Brought to Slippedisc New Year revellers courtesy of OperaVision.
Available from 1st January 2022 at 1700 CET, 1600 London, 1100 NY
“all not so long out of school themselves.”
Methinks kids, by the time they’ve graduated from the RCM, are well beyond “the cusp of sexual awakening”, this generation, they would’ve already had all combinations of non-binary, non-conforming, non-cis-gender, non-patriarchical, non-hetero-normative, poly, multi, amory.
The Magic Flute, with its two straight couples, is pret-ty quaint.
Amazing how innocent they can be made to seem, though, when there are political points to be made.
A TV program is coming up this week: “The Sex Lives of College Girls”. Sorry, isn’t there meant to be a campus rape crisis? The Left always wants to walk both sides of the street.
I don’t care about their sexuality they are brilliant young singers!