Back-to-back flutes a display of pure magic

by Rosslyn Hyams

Article published on the 2009-10-20 Latest update 2009-10-31 17:18 TU

(Photo: Isango Portobello)

Jazzy, raw and brash are just some of the words being used to describe the Magic Flute double bill being staged this autumn at the Théâtre du Chatêlet, in Paris. Steel drums and glass bottles ensure it's a far cry from the starchily suited orchestras of Europe.

"I thought this shock between two cultures would revive our hard drive... We're not listening any more... we have preconceived ideas about pieces like 'The Magic Flute' or Beethoven's 'Fifth'."

Jean-Luc Choplin, Director of the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris heard and felt "the essence of music" when he went to South Africa and attended a performance of Impempe Yomlingo, "the joy of music".

His experience led him to programme Mozart's meaningful but playful opera as a sort of double-bill in the autumn of 2009: three performances of 'The Magic Flute' as La Flûte Enchantée by the Opéra de Montpellier and nine performances of the 'Magic Flute' as Impempe Yomlingo by the Isango Portobello company.

"It's jazzy, it's raw, it's brash," says Mandisi Dyantyis, the Musical Director of the South African Magic Flute, of his trumpet which in this adaptation is the sound of the magic flute itself.

Apart from the trumpet, the orchestra is for the most part made up of marimbas, big xylophones, which follow the music composed by Mozart, but which are played by people standing up and moving to the rhythm, the melody.

Add a couple of steel drums, some glass bottles and traditional drums, and you are transported to the township. It's a far cry from the starchily suited orchestras of Europe.

The sounds and costumes  - some 21^st century-traditional - or the make-up for the initiation scene, are marked differences from Mozart's work of the 18^th century.

The decor consists of utilitarian scaffolding, wooden ramps and coloured neon lights. Both are love stories with a happy-ending that comes after the two youngsters go through a number of trials to prove their worth, and the complexity of human nature in the space of around two hours.

Impempe Yomlingo, performed by about 30 artists, is sung not only in classical operatic fashion, as in the duet by Papageno, the bird-catcher and Papagena his true love, but also, at times, in a blues or jazz or Motown style by the three women spirits in pink nylon negligées with big, fluffy, pink angels' wings.

"The roles we have are flexible, and we used anything that comes from the township," says Dyantyis. "The story has a resonance with South Africa, but some things wouldn't work with South Africa. Sarastro is a chief in ours, in Mozart's he's a priest."

Impempe Yomlingo, while close to the Magic Flute's music and libretto, is a little shorter. The atmosphere is joyful - even the sort of baddies like the Queen of the Night, Sarastro and Monostatos appear neither particularly menacing nor evil, and that fits the bill for Châtelet's director Choplin.

"My idea is that people should come here to discover and be happy. We want to offer them a bubble of fresh air, a dream, but at the same time, we are doing things with real people, in this case, from the township."