A Very Local Presence with Vancouver Opera's "The Magic Flute"

Last night, I attended a performance of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver. I say "Mozart's", but "The Magic Flute" of the Vancouver Opera has also been made post-colonial Vancouver's andFirst Nations' through a profound process of adaptation. Far from being an escape into the romance of 18th century Europe, the story of Tamino, Pamino, and Papageno brings the ideas of a search for love and a vision quest for a life's purpose together on soil that is both local and timeless. This highly adaptable opera has been set in many locations and time periods since it was first produced in 1791, in Vienna, but this may be the first time such a thorough collaboration with First peoples has been achieved. My favourite costume (pictured in the illustration) was the Lady of the Night's fantastic lunar moth. She was cloaked in a beauteous garb of wide protective wings about an insect's fascination of feathers and gear, almost to the definition of many legs on a thorax, implied by the style alone, the wonderful contrasts of the beautiful and the almost dreadful, that hint of weirdness that is the insects, that hint of dread and discomfort. ***image credit: Rory Kurtz