Tag Archives: The Magic Flute

Comparison of a the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s last major opera, The Magic Flute and Mildred Payne in Piper to the Alternative…

Perhaps the most extraordinary role in Mozart’s beloved singspiel The Magic Flute is the star-flaming Queen of the Night.  Her arias soar with the most exquisite tenderness or viciousness.  It almost seems at times that there are two very different Queen of the Nights — the tenderhearted Queen terrified of the fate of her abducted daughter Pamina or the vengeful Queen, ordering Pamina to kill her stepfather Sarastro or be damned to hell.  Mozart, in fact, received some criticism that the character of the QOTN was not clearly defined.  Nonetheless, one way or another, everything comes to a stop when she appears on the stage. She is simply unforgettable.

Mildred Payne is the character who represents the QOTN in Piper to the Alternative.  She is not a queen by birth, but has great aspirations.  She charms everyone she meets and then manipulates them to her own ends.  She is not a great beauty, but manages to convince everyone that she is.

In TMF, the QOTN has three handmaidens.  In P2A, she has a couple of wannabees…:-0

 

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The Other Side of Die Zauberflote…

It continually amazes me about die zauberflote, not the opera, the flute itself, that so many appear to take it for granted, as though there is nothing unusual.  From my standpoint, there is just nothing more powerful.  I call it a gift of “shalom” — something kind and refreshing, and this is true.  Playing the flute while keeping in mind a certain person or issue always helps to make things better.  No matter how dire a situation may appear, something wonderful seems to swoop in and turn everything for good.

There is another side of die zauberflote, however; a more enigmatic one, somewhat mystical.  It seems that it can generate a sort of energy of fire that will charge into the layers of lies or misrepresentations in a situation and pull them out.  Then it is as though a negative fog lifts and the truth becomes clear.

There seem to be a few stiffnecked people who think they can reverse the energy of die zauberflote somehow and use it to their own ends.  Many of them are now dead.  The luckier ones may be those who end up in a panic, seeking help to deal with something they find they do not understand.

The Other Mozart, or the “Stealth” Mozart…and “Minnegeddon”

Just what is the Other Mozart?  To me it is matter-of-fact, but, this seems to be something of a mystery to others, so it is not a concept that anyone can just accept and run with.  Let’s start with the axiom that there was a curse placed on Wolfgang Mozart and his family, by some who realized that his uniqueness was such that it threatened to drown out anything they could ever produce.  Let’s add into the mixture a dark angel who is in charge of working this curse.  As a result, Wolf’s family and their relationships are virtually destroyed, and he is sucked into a vortex of evil energy, from which he cannot escape.  He works as fast as he can, and shines as brightly as he can, sensing that time is of the essence.

In Mozart’s last major work, the opera The Magic Flute, he finds something that has eluded him during all his earthly life.  It is a voice — of gentleness, of honesty, only doing good. It is what we call “shalom”.  In creating it he throws himself into the future, and into another realm.  He senses, though he does not know, that the full unique nature of his gifts may come to be understood at some time in the future.  He does not realize, however, that, not only is he the most extraordinary musician to ever live, but also a prophet.  At a point in the future this opera comes to life in the real world.  And so another child is born.  A girl.  “Pamina”.  The Other Mozart.

However, Pamina is born into the circumstances that destroyed Wolf.  She is surrounded by the same evil forces that closed in on him at the end of his life.  Pamina can hear the energies of this dark angel.  At one point, it even momentarily manifests itself to her.  But she has to fight her way out of this darkness, which she calls “The Curse of Night and Fog”. This dark angel, which she calls The Night Magician, tries to use even her family members to destroy her and the gift she has been given.  She doesn’t understand just what that gift is until she starts to play the flute.  It protects her from all harm, but in the process, almost destroys her family and their relationships.

Life circumstances bring her to a place we’ll call Salzburg, Northland.  In it there is an orchestra that has just changed its name from the “Salzburg Symphony” to the “Salzburg State Orchestra”.  She starts to study the flute seriously with their Principal Flute player.  “Maurice Magus” and a cadre of other players crawl out of the woodwork, enticing her to practice on the stage at their Hall, behind the backs of management — trying to ensnare her, and stop die zauberflote.  They fail, but the fate of both Pamina and this Orchestra are now intertwined.  In short, these wicked players, “Monostatos”, make sure to lock her out of opportunity by refusing to give her a proper introduction to their world of music.  They even target her three small children.  However, die zauberflote guides and protects them.  Its gentle energy also has the power to cause those who tried to destroy her to have to deal with the destiny themselves that they once sought for her.

As a result of the lockout of Pamina, at a point in the future, the SSO players find themselves ‘locked-out’ by management that is outraged at their pridefulness and hypocrisy, for things they sense happened on the stage at their Hall, behind their backs, that, if disclosed, threaten to destroy the entire organization.  Pamina, sidelined and basically silenced, does everything she can to tell them the truth about what is going on, to help them.  As she is on the outside, and has no credibility with them, she is a “Stealth” Mozart, in that she persists in trying to do the right thing, almost speaking out from the grave, so to speak.

This is the basic structure of “Minnegeddon”.  The forces of light, of die zauberflote, and those of darkness of Monostatos are at war. The battlefield is the stage at Symphony Hall.  Don’t “believe” any of these things.  But do test them, and decide for yourself what to think.

#Minnegeddon — name change from Minneapolis Symphony to Minnesota Orchestra …s d reply…

SDS says, “Mr. Cornell, you forget that the Minnesota Orchestra is the same orchestra as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra”

The significance of the name change of the Minneapolis Symphony to Minnesota Orchestra in the 70’s cannot be over-emphasized. Without anyone realizing it, it seems the orchestra was taken into a different dimension, so to speak, and that has resulted in nothing but turbulence.

For anyone interesting in a clue, all they need do is look to Mozart’s last major opera and a character with a name that is quite similar to “Minnesota”. Of course, there was no “Minnesota” in 1791.

One might also consider Mahler’s last words…:-0

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2013/11/minnesota-orchestra-ends-talk-with-its-musicians.html#comment-179941 

Clues…or “tidbits”?

@squirrel said,”It’s irresponsible to drop salacious tidbits like that when you aren’t authorized to talk about anything substantive.”

“Salacious” might be appropriate, for example, for discussing the obsession of Monostatos with Pamina (in Mozart’s last major opera). Hopefully, the clues here are a bit esoteric. If not, I sincerely apologize.

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2013/08/slipped-disc-editorial-minnesota-is-trapped-in-a-bubble-of-virtual-unreality.html#comment-167467