The Magic Flute
Les Talens Lyriques & Christophe Rousset

Opera in concert version

Saturday, 27 August 2022
7.30 pm, Gstaad Festival Tent

Constance tells us that in the autumn of 1791, during the final days of his life, Mozart followed every performance of his Magic Flute, which his friend (and Masonic lodge brother) Emanuel Schikaneder was staging at the Theater auf der Wieden, from his bed while holding a clock in his hand, humming its emblematic tunes … Is there a more beautiful proof of his attachment to this now legendary score, in which he returned, after the very aristocratic (and Italian) “Da Ponte trilogy”, to the genre of popular theatre that suits him so well, ideally combining childish enchantment (embodied by the characters of Papageno and Papagena) and spiritual initiation (through the quest of Tamino and Pamina)? The work is brought to the stage by one of the most accomplished experts on historical performance practice, Christophe Rousset, who conducts the Talens Lyriques and the Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne. At the head of the cast of singers is Sandrine Piau, whom we can imagine starring brilliantly in the role of Pamina.