Items of Note

• “Clean” copies of our Candide music, with all changes marked and clarified, are now available.
• Practice tapes are also available, both for the Callaway music and for our other repertoire.

Again, many thanks to Jody Ames for helping with both these items!

Background of the Week: Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte)

Synopsis: The Prince Tamino awakes to find himself in an exotic land. The Queen of the Night appears and shows him a portrait of her daughter, Pamina, who has been kidnapped by the sorcerer Sorastro. Accompanied by the cheerful bird-catcher Papageno, and given a magic flute and magic bells from the Queen to help ward off danger, the two set off in search of the princess. Arriving at the temple, they discover that Sarastro is a priest of good and it is actually the queen who is evil. Tamino and Pamina meet and immediately fall in love; Tamino and Papageno must pass a series of trials in order to join the temple brotherhood and save Pamina. The easily-distracted Papageno fails his trials, but nevertheless meets his soulmate, “Papagena.” With the help of the magic flute, Pamina and Tamino survive ordeals by fire and water. Meanwhile, the evil Queen and her minions are engulfed by a clap of thunder. The opera ends with a celebration of the victory of light over darkness, in a chorus of thanksgiving to the gods Isis and Osiris (“Isis und Osiris”).

Notes: The Magic Flute was the last opera completed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. When he died, aged thirty-five, two months after its premiere, the work already had enjoyed a success. On his deathbed, Mozart consulted his watch each night to see how far along the performance had progressed.

Because it has spoken dialogue, The Magic Flute is technically not an opera but a singspiel (song play). Mozart was eager to write another such work in German, both for artistic and financial reasons. The opportunity came in March 1791, when the actor and impresario Emanuel Schikaneder needed a new work for the theater he was managing in a suburb of Vienna. Originally setting out to create an Oriental fantasy play (a type popular at that time), the authors, both members of the secret fraternal society of Freemasons, decided midway in the first act to alter the course of the story to honor the recent death of a Masonic leader, Ignatz von Born.

In the premiere, at the Theater auf der Wieden, September 30, 1791, Schikaneder played Papageno; the Queen of the Night was Mozart's vocally brilliant sister-in-law Josefa Weber Hofer. Tamino was Benedikt Schack (an excellent flutist, who played his own magic flute), and the composer supervised the orchestra.

Shameless Plugs:

• Ensemble Vermillian. Frances Blaker, recorders; Barbara Blaker Krumdieck, Baroque cello; Katherine Heater, harpsichord, in "Stylus Fantasticus" - Italian and German music of the 17th and 18th centuries. Saturday, April 5, 8:00 pm at St. Alban's Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington Ave (corner of Washington and Curtis), Albany. Tickets: $18 general, $16 student/senior/ SFEMS members. For reservations, call (510) 559-4670. Tickets available at the door starting at 7:30 pm.
• UC Alumni Chorus: “Vivat Regina!” Sunday, April 6, 3 PM, Hertz Hall (UC Berkeley campus). $15 general/$10 students, seniors, disabled; tickets available from Jody Ames or at the door. A concert of music for coronations and queens, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the coronation of Elizabeth II. Purcell, Morley, Handel, Mozart, Britten, and much, much more.
• San Francisco Choral Society: “Baroque Masters” Concert. The SF Choral Society performs Handel’s Dixit Dominus, and J.S. Bach’s Christ lag in Todes Banden, with the Jubilate Orchestra, on Saturday, April 12 at 8 pm, and Sunday, April 13 at 4 pm at Calvary Presbyterian Church (corner of Fillmore & Jackson Streets, San Francisco). Tickets are $25 for Front Orchestra (reserved), $22 for Rear Orchestra (reserved), and $19 for all other seats (general admission). $2 discount per ticket for students & seniors over 62. Tickets available via 415-392-4400 or www.http://www.sfchoral.org.
• Summer Workshop with John Poole. Choral conductor John Poole (of the BBC Orchestra and Indiana University) will offer a local workshop in the third week of June, with four rehearsals and a mini-concert at the end. Tuition is likely to be about $75 for the week. Please let Arlene know if you’re interested in this opportunity to work with an internationally known conductor!
• Duruflé Requiem. The Arlington Community Church choir would still love to have a few extra singers who are already familiar with this work for their performance in April. Wednesday evening rehearsals are short (8:30 – 9:30 pm), and take place at ACC, 52 Arlington Avenue, in the Fireside Room. For details, contact director Leslie Moorjani at 510-843-7745.