Damon Albarn previews new electro-opera sequel to Mozart's The Magic Flute
The Blur frontman is adapting Goethe's unfinished Magic Flute sequel into an electronic opera, premiering in Paris this March.
Damon Albarn has unveiled details of his new electro-opera 'The Magic Flute II: La Malédiction', which premieres at the Théâtre du Lido in Paris on 27th March.
The opera is based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 1807 work 'The Magic Flute Part II', a sequel to Mozart's original 1791 opera that was never set to music.
"The idea of me writing an opera and for it to be a continuation of The Magic Flute sounds ridiculous, it was and is, not only was I grappling with the genius of Mozart but I had Goethe to contend with too," Albarn explains. "I suppose I took a relatively reductionist approach to the question, how the fuck do I do this? The answer came from a surprising source but one no less brilliant, Kraftwerk."
Producer Jean-Luc Choplin, who previously collaborated with Albarn on 'Monkey: Journey To The West', describes how the project came to fruition: "Reading Benoît Chantre's book on Friedrich Hölderlin, Le Clocher de Tübingen, I discovered that during an evening in Tübingen attended by Hölderlin, Schiller and Goethe, the latter said he was writing a sequel to Mozart's famous 'Singspiel', The Magic Flute. This triggered my curiosity and I set off in search of Goethe's script and sketches. I soon became convinced that there was an opportunity to develop the opera that Goethe had dreamed of."
Choplin adds: "As Hölderlin and Goethe prophesied, and paraphrasing Benoît Chantre, this electro opera speaks to us of a possible 'European night', and at a time when glaciers are melting and cities are ablaze, this new fable is a good way to think about our world and draw a moral lesson of courage and optimism from it."
The opera is based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 1807 work 'The Magic Flute Part II', a sequel to Mozart's original 1791 opera that was never set to music.
"The idea of me writing an opera and for it to be a continuation of The Magic Flute sounds ridiculous, it was and is, not only was I grappling with the genius of Mozart but I had Goethe to contend with too," Albarn explains. "I suppose I took a relatively reductionist approach to the question, how the fuck do I do this? The answer came from a surprising source but one no less brilliant, Kraftwerk."
Producer Jean-Luc Choplin, who previously collaborated with Albarn on 'Monkey: Journey To The West', describes how the project came to fruition: "Reading Benoît Chantre's book on Friedrich Hölderlin, Le Clocher de Tübingen, I discovered that during an evening in Tübingen attended by Hölderlin, Schiller and Goethe, the latter said he was writing a sequel to Mozart's famous 'Singspiel', The Magic Flute. This triggered my curiosity and I set off in search of Goethe's script and sketches. I soon became convinced that there was an opportunity to develop the opera that Goethe had dreamed of."
Choplin adds: "As Hölderlin and Goethe prophesied, and paraphrasing Benoît Chantre, this electro opera speaks to us of a possible 'European night', and at a time when glaciers are melting and cities are ablaze, this new fable is a good way to think about our world and draw a moral lesson of courage and optimism from it."
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