The Magic Flute. - Toytheatre.info

The Magic Flute.
instructions
For this play we used sheets by Schreiber and Trentensky which we edited and
transformed. Schreiber produced a sheet with characters but this does not provide enough
figures so we also used characters from other plays and adapted and edited them to fit.
The problem here is that different publishers work in different styles, e.g. Line oriented
versus Tone oriented, which made the adaptation more involved than one might think.
The play is quite silly actually and in my opinion one should not attemp to produce it
without the music. We adapted the opera and cut it back to 25 minutes, rearranged
scenes and added a voice-over to fill in any gaps in the story.
If you do not want to do that you might check out http://www.classicalarchives.com which
has midifiles of the opera.
Performing the play in 25 minutes meant that we did not want any intermission so the
story is told in one go, this had some consequences for the way we handled the
decorations.
Look at the picture to see how we set up the scenery.
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The Magic Flute.
instructions
During the performance we work from front to back. Twice do we put in a backdrop:
The Nightscene, for the first meeting with the Queen of the Night, and the Finale.
The Temple-and Garden backdrops are flown from above, although in a pinch you could
also slide them in.
The other special backdrop is the Fire. In our theater it comes up from the floor, just
because it felt right.
My wife and I operate the theater together which gives us four hands to do the job.
If you work alone you will have to make a lot of changes I guess.
I will give you the synopsis of the play with the German Act and Scene numbers and
underlined references to the original German aria’s.
Also some stage directions and the, indented, voice-over text.
Erster Akt
SZENE I.
Tamino 1 crosses the stage.
“Once upon a time there was a brave prince who went out in search of a dragon....
To kill him....
And he really did find one.....
Only the dragon had other plans”.
Introduktion:”Zu Hilfe! Zu Hilfe!”
Tamino 2 reënters followed by the dragon who spits fire!
(For notes on how to do that, see our website: http://www.vischmarktpapierentheater.nl )
Tamino faints (off screen).
“Happily he was saved by the Ladies in Waiting of the Queen of the Night, they
killed the Dragon!”
Triumph...er ist befreit...
“These ladies were sent by their queen to buy songbirds from Papageno, the
Birdcatcher”
Ladies off, enter Papageno.
SZENE II.
Lied:”Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja.”
In the opera there is now a dialog between Papageno and the, recovered, Tamino, about
who is who, and whether or not Papageno is human and how he seemed to have killed
the dragon with his bare hands.
Papageno brags about his strength.
SZENE III.
The Ladies reënter and explain that they are the ones that really killed the monster.
SZENE IV.
Then one of them shows Tamino a medaillon with the portrait of Pamina.
He immediately falls in love.
Arie:”Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön.”
Then the ladies explain that the girl is held captive by Zarastro an enemy of the Queen of
the Night and Tamino promises to save her.
We hear the sound of thunder and there should be lightning effects.
The Sky backdrop is put on.
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The Magic Flute.
instructions
The Queen of the Night enters, begging Tamino to help her and save her daugther.
SZENE VII.
Rezitativ und Arie:”O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn!”
SZENE VIII.
“As punishment for his bragging Papageno must accompany Tamino in his search
for the princes Pamina.
To help them they receive a silver glockenspiel and a magic flute.”
Singing everybody exits.
“So lebet wohl, wir wollen gehn”
SZENE XIII.
The Desert backdrop is removed during the previous scene and when the Sky scene is
taken off we see a Garden. Pamina stands there.
Enter Papageno. Both are behind the Garden wings.
“During their search Tamino and Papageno got separated.
Papageno finds the princess in a beautiful garden. He explains who he is and that
Tamino is also looking for her.”
Terzett:”Schön Mädchen jung und fein.” followed by:”Das ist der Teufel sicherlich.”
“Papageno is frightened by the black jailor Monostatos and he is afraid of
Papageno.”
They both flee in seperate directions.
Pamina dreams about her prince Tamino.
Duett:”Bei Männer, welche Liebe fühlen...”
Both she and Papageno exit.
SZENE XIV.
Enter Tamino in front of the Garden wings.
When condensing the opera I removed all the references to the Three Boys. This means
that in the next aria we start at the 4th. line, after the Boys have gone!
”Wo bin ich nun. Was wird mit mir?”
Tamino tries to enter the temple and is send away twice. Then follows the discussion with
the priest (1) and it ends with Tamino being assured that Pamina still lives and he starts
to play the flute (Tamino 2).
His playing is answered by Papageno in the Garden. Tamino exits looking for them.
SZENE XV.
”Schnelle Füsse, rascher Mut”.
In the Garden Pamina and Papageno reënter.
They realise that Tamino is near and plan to go to him.
”Nur geschwinde, nur geschwinde...”
SZENE XVI.
But Monostatos finds them out and with his slave/guards drives them back, they all exit.
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The Magic Flute.
instructions
“Wer viel wagt, viel gewinnt..”
Papageno reënters with the magic glockenspiel, followed by the dancing Monostatos.
All exit and Papageno and Pamina reënter.
”Könnte jeder braver Mann solche Glöckchen finden..”
SZENE XVII.
Right then enter the group of priests singing, followed by Zarastro and two priests, one of
whom we already have seen talking Tamino.
They are placed in front of the Garden wings and hide Papageno and Pamina who are
taken off.
“Es lebe Zarastro!”
“There comes the highpriest, with his followers is all lost?”
Pamina reënters in front of the Priests and at the same time Monostatos enters pushing
Tamino before him. (Here it might be a good idea to use an extra copy of Monostatos.)
SZENE XVIII.
“Nun stolzer Jüngling, nur hierher!”
Pamina and Tamino recognize each other
“Er ist’s!.. Sie ist’s!”
But Monostatos drives them apart.
“Welch eine Dreistigkeit..”
I skipped the references to Monostatos being punished and cut to Zarastro:
“Führt diese beiden Fremdlinge....”
All exit except the Priests.
This is the end of the first Act so you might want to lower the curtain.
We however played straight on, because the scene change to the temple only involves the
removal of the Garden backdrop (see picture on the first page).
In our theater both the Garden and the Temple backdrop are flown.
Zweiter Akt.
SZENE I.
In the Temple. (The priest are still standing)
”Marsch der Priester”
After Zarastro’s speech I cut to the second priest.
“Grosser Zarastro, wird Tamino die harten Prüfungen bestehen? Er ist Prinz”
Zarastro.
“Mehr noch, er ist Mensch”.
Exit Zarastro and the group of priests, enter Tamino and Papageno.
SZENE II.
Here comes the interrogation of Tamino and Papageno by the two priests.
Its starts with:
”Ihr Fremdlinge was sucht oder erfordert ihr von uns?”
It ends with:
”...dies ist die Anfang eurer Prüfungszeit”.
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The Magic Flute.
instructions
But when one of the priests asks Papageno if he wants a female, I inserted Papageno’s
song:
“Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen wünscht Papageno sich.....”
The priests and Tamino exit.
The scene changes back to the Garden.
SZENE XIV.
This is the dialog between Papageno and Papagena, who poses as an old lady.
At he end there is thunder and lightning and Papagena disappears.
Here I changed the order of the scenes again and went straight to:
SZENE XXI.
The first Priest tells Papageno that he is unworthy to become one of the intitiates.
Papagenon is not in the least worried, because he feels that there is also need of normal
people like him.
After this scene we go the the Gates of Terror which I placed at the back of the theater.
In order to get there from the previous Garden scene you have to make sure that during
that scene, the Temple backdrop is removed.
“Tamino and Pamina too must endure a trial. They must go trough a fiery fire and
through ice cold water. Pamina does not understand why Tamino won’t talk to her,
but she loves him and follows him faithfully.”
The opera has some instrumental music here. I added the sound of the doors opening and
closing plus fire-and water soundeffects. I also removed the two knights from my version.
SZENE XIX.
When the trial is over and the gates closed, all the Priests enter again, singing:
Chor der Priester:“O Isis und Osiris”.
Then they all exit.
“But Papageno is very unhappy. He has lost his change to marry Papagena.”
Put on the Garden backdrop.
SZENE XXVII
Enter Papageno he sings how he lost Papageno and plans to hang himself.
“Papagena, Papagena, Papagena...”
“Suicides plans?”
At the end of this song he counts:
“Eins.....” A chair glides in.
“Zwei....” The gallows glides in.
“Drrrrei....” Remove the chair and replace it with Papageno on the chair.
See the sheet “Extra’s”.
“Wait a minute... the magic bells.”
As I did not use the characters of the three boys, (nor the two knights) I cut straight to the
sound of the glockenspiel.
The moment that starts, remove the gallows and the chair with Papageno on it.
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The Magic Flute.
instructions
Enter Papageno and Papagena.
“Pa, Pa, Pa..... etc.
They exit singing.
Of course we are not finished yet, we need to dispose of the Queen of the Night and her
henchmen and we have to do a “Grand Finale”.
So during the duet between Papageno and Papagena I put the following text:
“And so they live happily ever after and had many little Papageno’s and
Papagena’s.
But what happened to the Queen of the Night?”
SZENE VIII
Remove the Garden scene and we see the Temple. The Queen enters
Arie:”Die holle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen”
Of course I could not forego this aria, at the end I added another text:
“She is looking for revenge....”
Exit the Queen and reënter with her ladies and Monostatos.
SZENE XXVII
The song continues here with:
“Nur stille, stille, stille, stille!”
At the end we hear thunder and out of the floor rise up Flames (at least in our theater they
rise from the floor, but of course you could slide them in if from the side if you want to.)
The flames are accompanied by smoke.
See our website, http://www.vischmarktpapierentheater.nl for a cheap smokemachine.
The flames hide the characters.
Slide in The Finale backdrop.
Enter Zarastro singing
“Die Strahlen der Sonne...”
Then the chorus:
“Heil sei euch Geweihten!”
During the final chorus slide in the priests, the clouds, Pamina and Tamino and Papagena
and Papageno.
Make a nice tableau.
“The Kingdom of Light defeated the Darkness and they all live happily ever after.”
Lower the curtain.
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