The Comic Magic Flute for children�

[ Author Adrian Trasca ] [ From category THE Articles ] [ Subcategory OperaRail 2015 ] [ Subcategory III Felicia Filip ] [ Translator Catalina Popescu ] [ Article date: 2015-05-30 ] [ From city Bucuresti ] [ Country România ] [ Link images: http://www.operanationala.ro/poze/poze.php?id_categ=35&nume_categ=bucuresti---occ---flautul-fermecat ]   "The Magic Flute", "Don Pasquale", " The Barber of Seville" - the repertory of a "normal" opera. "Madam Chirita", "Mister Cauliflower", "Snow White", "Cinderella" - the repertory of an "abnormal" opera! These and other titles form the repertory of the Bucharest Comic Children�s Opera - a deliciously "abnormal" Opera, which represents a more than welcome exotic element, lively and cheerful, in the Bucharest artistic landscape. If I asked 50 football fans who love opera - I beg your pardon, 50 music lovers :-) - which are the Romanian operas, I don�t know how many would include the Bucharest Comic Opera for Children (BCOC) among them. Nevertheless, BCOC is a reason of pride both for Bucharest, and for Romania: it is the only opera for children in the world! With pretty big chances of being the only children opera in the universe! :-) Which is surprising, given the fact that there are many children�s theatres, even in Romania. Founded in 1998, with Smaranda Otzeanu-Bunea, the former deputy manager of the Bucharest National Opera, as founding manager, BCOC is at present run by an extraordinary duo: the great soprano Felicia Filip, as CEO, and her husband, the great director Cristian Mihailescu, on the unofficial position of shadow manager. :-) The institution�s headquarters is in the old Giulesti Theatre, the same place where the shows take place. They are sung in Romanian and are rather operetta, a combination of arias carefully chosen from the original libretto and spoken texts, so as the little ones to understand better and easier what is happening on the scene. A great deal of importance is given to the interaction between the artists and the public, sometimes the artists asking the little ones questions and waiting for answers, who often are loud or in choir - "Yeees! ", "Noooo! " After the entrance, in the lounge, on two big white walls, atemporal images-videos are projected, making the place spectacular. Two I have seen were presenting orange clouds, and stars like in the cosmos. On the corridor leading towards the hall there are four things that simulate burning red-violet-blue fires, an "obstacle" for those who hurry to enter the hall, things that are almost always surrounded by children who, of course, block the corridor. "The Magic Flute" at BCOC has the role, of course, of charming the children. :-) It had its first night five weeks ago, and since then it was played 20 times, namely more than once every two days! The songs are live, but the artists have microphones, and the sound is spread through loudspeakers, too, so as to be heard throughout the room. Children are an exigent audience and to them you can�t come with the excuse "The sound is not good because we paid less and have seats at the back", they just need to hear! It�s enough that they did you, a grown up, a favour, by accompanying you to the opera, they don�t need to pretend hearing or liking it if they don�t! :-) The prince Tamino, dressed in a kind of hunting suit, but cream-coloured, not green, shows up on the scene. Behind him, on a canvas the size of a curtain, a cartoon with a green scary dragon threatening him. The cowardly prince faints, but the dragon is killed by three girls with dark-grey cloaks and spears with spearheads made of white glowing plastic. The girls leave. There comes Papageno, who is a bird keeper, so he speaks Chinese. Namely gibberish. :-) Anyway, there�s not a big difference :-), but it�s a fact that he is the exotic element of the show, both literally and figuratively, being interpreted by a Chinese :-) - Fang Shuang, a student at the Bucharest Conservatory, so he also speaks the language of music, and Romanian, which means a total of 4 languages. :-) He has a predominantly bright green costume with a shoulder covered in pink, and he has a multicoloured parrot on his head, contrasting excellently with his black hair. Papageno boasts that he has killed the green dragon, the children in the hall shout "No, he hasn�t! He is lying! " The three girls didn�t like his lying either, so they bring him water instead of wine, a stone instead of gingerbread, but I think they didn�t like him being a polyglot either, because they locked his mouth with a padlock. :-) The canvas rises, revealing the scene, and the children applaud. Pamina is brought in, her hands tied up at the back, by four brutes in green overalls, plus their chief, the Moor Monostatos, in purple baggy pants, dark blue turban and cloak cut horizontally by oblong black and white spots, his face painted in black and having white outline around the lips. The scene rotates, revealing another decor. This is another element of pride for BCOC, as in Romania there are only three rotating (modular) scenes, all of them in Bucharest, the other two at the National Theatre and at the newly built Operetta! And the one at CC has been reinstated only recently, after 42 years of inactivity! The bird keeper and the black man tease each other, the children laugh. Papageno checks Pamina - "The eyes... yes, there are two! " - the children laugh again. From the sides, both among the public and on the scene various animals appear (people with big plush heads), the children like them a lot. The rhino, the zebra, the lion, the tiger, the giraffe, the monkey, they are the noblemen of the great Zarastro (spelled Sarastro), who appears on top of some stairs at his orange court, where the words "Force, Wisdom, Beauty" are written, each of them on the upper part of a wall. The queen of the night. Long dark-white dress, with the skirt part in three shades of colour, the first horizontal third in the same white as above, continuing the "blouse", followed by one third in purple, and another one in dark blue, and on the head silver fillet with some "antennas" slightly bent towards the back. She asks Pamina to kill Zarastro, and a child shouts "Bad queen! " :-) Her famous aria follows - which one day I listened for about 20 times in a row! And it was in German! But I "admit" it sounds better in Romanian. :-) Zarastro is wearing an imposing golden cloak and on his head he has a cap like a pot with big handles in colours from the same range. Pamina has a light blue blouse, turquoise dress, separated by a golden belt. Children can be heard asking questions. They clap their hands after Pamina�s aria "I want to die! ", but also after Papageno�s, "I would like a dove." The lights go off, next to me a little girl tells her father "Here is the fire test! ", and then, on the canvas-curtain big flames show up, through which the two, Tamino and Pamina, go. Te little girl informs "me" that the next one is the water test, a river flowing on the canvas. "Bells ring for my lover" - sing the Chinese Papageno, but also the little girl next to me. "Pa pa / Pa pa / ghe no / ghe na", the little girl knows all the lyrics! On the scene enter the little papagenos, ten of them, Papageno and Papagena�s children invented by Mr Cristian Mihailescu, the children in the hall applaud enthusiastically. PapaFangheno counts them: ii, aar, sen, sîî... aaa, this is 1-2-3-4 in Chinese! :-) Correct in gibberish :-) it is onepone-twopwo-threephree-fourpour-... until ninepine... ăăă, one is missing! :-) Here he is, he showed up, they are tenpen, the children applaud, they feel as if they are part of the show! The night�s queen is defeated, the show ends, the children applaud. Papageno, Papagena, the little papagenos and the animals start walking in the public, the children are ecstatic, especially those who are close to the isles and have their picture taken or "give hi5" with some of the characters. At the exit, the pictures become children�s number one objective, most of them wanting to "take home" their own image superimposed over the images projected on the white walls, over the panel with the name and image of the show, and especially with the characters from the show who "accidentally found themselves" among the little ones. And I, at one metre ninety being small, of course :-) , asked the Night�s Queen if she would have her picture taken with a bigger child. :-) She wasn�t mean, she accepted it. :-) I had two more free hours ahead, the show had taken one hour and was about to start again for a new "bunch" of dwarfs, so I had the idea to see it again right then. I told Mr Mihailescu "I want to see the show again, but, if you kick me out, I�ll leave, what can I do?" :-), he smiled and rushed me into the hall, as the show was just starting again. And this is how I saw a show at BCOC twice in the same day, a very rare thing, which I otherwise did only one more time, last year on the Thames� shore, when I saw "La Boh�me" Twice at the Royal Opera in London. ;-) This is another argument if favour of the Bucharest Comic Opera, one of the best places where you can educate your child. Or where you can feel like a child: sincere, enthusiastic, glad. The way you feel, for instance, when you meet a friend again after about ten years. ;-) Pa pa Pa pa Ghe no Ghe na

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