Don Giovanni König Kandaules Die Zauberflöte Turandot Die Liebe der Danae Roméo et Juliette La Donna del Lago Helmut Lachenmann Jedermann Daponte in Santa Fe Das weite Land Young Directors Joachim Schlömer Concerts 2002 The Unfinished

CIRCLES OF THE IMAGINATION
Achim Freyer directs, Bertrand de Billy conducts Mozart’s Magic Flute

Who would dare to dispute that the circus is a place of higher meaning, a reflection of the world and life. There is above and below, the arena as the symbol of the circle, the art of balance, animals as in Noah’s ark, and the person divided into two – who longs to be merged into one again – can be recognised most vividly. High up beneath the top of the circus tent, trapeze artists try to fly and be united like the albatrosses that are able to rise up to the gods, as in legendary times when the race of the mannish woman that presumed to fight against the gods was punished by Zeus and divided into two halves.
Plato relates the story very vividly in his Symposium. However, on earth, in the dust of the arena, the usual mortals live in the circus, the clowns – laughing, crying, fooling around, turning somersaults, falling to the ground and then picking themselves up again: just like people.
Who wants to dispute that the circus is the ideal venue for Mozart’s Magic Flute? Or indeed that this opera already contains the deeper wisdom of the circus?

A circus tent in the Felsenreitschule

Achim Freyer, whose imagination goes beyond customary interpretations, animates our stages again and again in a wonderful way, and for his vision of The Magic Flute has built a theatre of its own, a circus tent installed in the Felsenreitschule. Freyer independently creates for himself his own playing areas into which he projects his pictures, signs and meanings. He also projects The Magic Flute into the artificial space of the circus and the work seems to merge completely naturally with this area, to vibrate and correspond with it. Circular forms and colours gain symbolic and mysterious meanings. In The Magic Flute Freyer deals with the subjects, motifs, meanings in a playful and poetic manner, lightly and cheerfully. The interpretation does not thrust itself to the fore but theatre asserts its primacy.

Longing for the reunification of man and woman

Freyer feels an affinity with the characters in The Magic Flute: Tamino appears as an oriental prince, like a cinema star on his way to The Tiger of Eschnapur. At the beginning he stands in the background on one leg, with his back to the audience. Tamino will not only seek knowledge but go even further in his search for love, which is nothing other than the longing for the reunification of man and woman. In the final scene we see Pamina and Tamino in the same place, this time the woman raises one leg: the utopia of unity, reflected in a matching couple high up in the tent, stretching out their hands in desire for one another. The circular game of eternal longing continues and we, the audience, may recognise ourselves in the play: the chorus wearing everyday clothes comes onto the stage for the test of fire and water and they sit down on the circular benches. Then, like the public sitting in the stalls, they watch the experiment. It is fascinating to experience how a stage director can pose himself in an artistic circle, how he varies a sketch for a work cosmos in the second circumcircle and makes the circle larger and larger. But despite all contemplation Achim Freyer does not forget the theatre and acting, the element of comedy, the invention of poetic signs and pictures.

Gerhard Rohde

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Die Zauberflöte
Sung in German with English supertitles

Felsenreitschule

Revival: 29 July 2002, 1, 3, 5, 9, 11, 13, 17, 21, 25, (3 p.m), 27 (3 p.m.) August 2002
Performances start at 6.30 p.m. unless otherwise stated

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