PETER BROOK

17 -27 november
Teatro Argentina

«We can imagine Mozart looking down on us from above with a wry smile on his face, making fun of us and ready to catch us off guard. We welcome him with open arms, profound love and respect for the essential things that he has revealed to us. At the same time, however, we greet him with a certain irreverence». This year Peter Brook returns to Rome with his latest musical theatre performance: “A “Magic Flute” by Mozart [to print  AMagic Flute by Mozartor A “Magic Flute” by Mozart] both a homage to youth and contemporaneously, a creative compendium of this veritable doyen of the theatre arts who has given us a profound reinterpretation of this classical work staged with an elemental, sombre scenography.

Brook has always been interest in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and this production of the Magic Flute is his third re-elaboration on Mozart's work after his productions “The Marriage of Figaro” and “Don Giovanni”. As for his productions of “Carmen” and “Pelléas et Mélisande”, Brook has reinterpreted Mozart’s music with the collaboration of the composer and pianist Franck Krawczyk and the text together with Marie-Hélène Estienne, playwright and Brook’s collaborator for many years. Thus we have the uncustomary title of “A “The Magic Flute” instead of “The Magic Flute”. Brook says that he has reinterpreted the work «freely!» and was awarded the Molière Prize in 2011 for this musical theatre production.

We can therefore comprehend the essence of Brook's theatrical works which focuses on the decantation of texts and places the actors at the centre. This approach stems from his long-standing relationship with the Royal Shakespeare Company when he produced key works such as “King Lear”, “Marat Sade” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and later—and in the 70's—when he started his collaboration with the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris, under his direction since 1974.

With a quintessential scenography, far from the usual solemnity of opera, seven young singers and two narrative actors search for the ineffable, intimate essence within Mozart's last work: the enchanted rite of passage from youth to adulthood, a play on love and friendship, the epic brotherhood between men. A single piano accompaniment takes the interpreters into the hidden realms of the lyrics and with a subtle play of light and shadow which create alternation between the mundane and the mysterious; blunt aphorisms and magical objects—including the flute itself—create an incessant series of metamorphoses and abrupt surprises.