Impempe Yomlingo

[khiemtran]

After a toxic day at work yesterday, I went to see The Magic Flute - Impempe Yomlingo at the Young Vic. It's a South African adaption of the Mozart opera, and it was very uplifting. The music was brilliant, the African influences combining well with the Mozart original.

Dramatically, it was also one of the more satisfying interpretations I've encountered. Somehow the story seems to make more sense against a background of South African townships and tribal initiations, and the focus was shifted more onto Tamino's coming of age and the cost of Pamina and Tamino's sacrifice for each other.

The venue was also excellent. The Young Vic has unassigned seating and the seats are all close to the stage. I ended up about four rows back from the front of the stage, just a little to the right and behind of where the conductor stood for the overture. The seating extended almost all the way around three sides of the stage and the performers used all three walkways as well (Pamina sang one of her arias two rows in front of me). Being surrounded by the singers and having the audience so close to the stage made for a wonderful experience. It also brought the whole back closer to its original singspiel roots - populist, informal entertainment, and meant that the performers could use more natural voices instead of the traditional delivery for the recitatives.

Comments

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed it, it soudns like great fun.

And I am still convinced that Tamino is a typo. Papageno and Papagena, Pamina and-

Just doesn't sound right.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

The other big change was that Papagena only appeared at the very end, and they left out parts where she appears as an old lady. It still worked quite well as a story though.