Mozart's Magic Flute: Freemasonry Inspired Opera @ CSU Chico
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Filled with ritual and symbolism, Mozart’s final masterpiece is a playful but profound look at man's search for love and his struggle to attain wisdom and virtue. Mozart joined a Masonic Lodge in the autumn of 1784 at the age of twenty-eight.
That the Magic Flute is a barely veiled Masonic allegory cannot be doubted. It acts, in fact, as a kind of introduction to the secret society. Its story celebrates the main themes of masonry: good vs. evil, enlightenment vs. ignorance, and the virtues of knowledge, justice, wisdom and truth. The evocation of the four elements (earth, air, water and fire), the injunction of silence in the Masonic ritual, the figures of the bird, the serpent and the padlock as well as the ‘rule of three’ all play important roles in the plot or in the musical fabric of the opera (three ‘Ladies’, three ‘Boys’, three loud chords at the beginning of the overture signifying the three ‘knocks’ of the initiates at the temple, three temples, the three flats of E-flat Major which is the primary tonality of the work, etc.). All of these symbols and characteristics come from Egyptian lore and the various original texts of Masonry. (Source: San Francisco Opera Education)
February 16 and 17th @ 7:30pm
Opera returns to California State University, Chico when the Department of Music and Theatre present two performances of Mozart's delightful "The Magic Flute" in Rowland-Taylor Recital Hall. Performed (in English) by Chico State vocal students, community members, the University Chorus and Chamber Orchestra, the "Magic Flute" is a comic opera the whole family will enjoy!
Call the University Box Office -- 530-898-6333 -- for tickets. For more information, call the Department of Music and Theatre at 530-898-5152.
