The Magic Flute Opera Review

Attending my first opera performance was a very interesting experience for me. The Magic Flute is a fictional story that is a combination of love with a twist of good versus evil. Everyone who was involved in planning and organizing this masterpiece made it come to life before your eyes. 

The Magic Flute is an opera composed by the very famous Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This show was performed in September of 1791 at the Schikaneder's Theatre in Australia. The opening act of the symphony used a beautiful mixture of crescendo and decrescendo to grasp the audiences' attention. Before listening to a symphony, I never realized how much I truly enjoy hearing the sounds of flute flowing through my ears. My expectations of an opera performance were far off from what I got to witness myself. I always imagined an opera to be completely acapella and didn't realize there were simple pieces of just acting in between the music and singing. This definitely sparked my attention towards the stage knowing that there is a story plot. The stage was set up in a mixture of bright colors and the lighting was positioned well to see the emotions upon the performer's faces. The overall acting of an opera is more dramatic than I thought it would be, but I still enjoyed following along the storyline and listening to how the music synced up with it. I was very impressed to observe how in sync the musicians of the symphony played together. I have never gotten to experience something with such high professionalism performed. 

Act 1 was a very good attention grabber in my opinion. I liked getting familiar with all of the character roles and how their voices projected throughout their songs. Trying to follow along to the language was difficult for me, but having subtitles to follow along made it a little easier. The Queen was hands down my favorite performer of the entire show. The costume designs for her character were well thought out and really caught your eye. She did an excellent job not only with her overall acting performance, but her voice sounded incredible!  I have never heard someone sing in such a high octave before, it gave me chills throughout my entire body. The Queen had a solo piece called, 'Queen of the Nights Aria'. I happened to recognize this song from when I was roughly between the ages of 5 and 10. It was played in a symphony movie that I loved to watch. The fact that I now have an understanding of where this song originated from, who composed it, and the role behind it gives me great appreciation more so than I ever had before.

Act 2 was a little harder to follow along with at some parts and for me came across as more boring compared to Act 1. The storyline of the opera as a whole ended up concluding very well. The movements on stage and props really sparked up interest, along with the symphones exellent sound effects to add to the play. I loved the use of water sprinkling up from the ground to look like fountains behind the performers. The symphony did a magnificent job creating the sounds of suspense flowing throughout your veins, keeping you at the edge of your seat waiting to know what happens next. 

This brand new experience was something out of the ordinary for my personal taste. Although I did enjoy parts of it, others I found very confusing and tough to get through until something stuck my attention back to the performance. I am not sure if opera performances are my favorite, or maybe a different opera would be more appealing to me, but I absolutely enjoyed experiencing something brand new!