Flips Green, Director: What are your thoughts on our revamp of the original premise of the opera?

The new concept, as I understand it, likens Mozart’s great opera to the Wizard of Oz. In the same way it has a domestic opening that plunges the rest of the drama into a fantasy, which makes sense of a lot of the surreal elements of the opera. In the same way, it focuses on the protagonist and friends searching for some sort of fulfilment in what is a metaphor for the crazy modern world (some more suitable for fulfilment than others). And in the same way it focuses on a seemingly pompous and grandiose dictator who turns out to be more humble than first imagined. Finally, of course, there is an evil witch who has animals destroyed, despatches minions willy-nilly, converts the weak-minded and tries to murder the main characters…which is of course much better than the antagonist in the Wizard of Oz.

Ben Hamilton, Conductor: How do you feel the characters’ music interacts with this reading?

I think there is a lot of interesting research to be done on this. Both the Wizard of Oz and the opera, of course, contain songs, often on the same themes: compare ‘We’re off to see the wizard’ with Kit’s rendering of ‘Here’s to friendship’s harmony’, or the three ladies’ singing ‘Three fair young boys will now escort you…they’ll guide and guard you all the way’ with ‘follow the yellow-brick road’. I feel Kit’s translation in fact adds to Schikaneder’s original libretto, especially in terms of repeated material. Papageno and Papagena’s duet, with its play on words beginning with ‘Papa’ and indeed the repeated ‘Pa’s show their remarkable self-obsession and Sarastro’s second aria (effectively altered by Kit to three repetitions of the same phrase) reveals how adamant he is that is message get across, like a teacher. It also means that the parts are always in a dialogue, and are not reduced to vapid, character-less bags who take a huge amount of time singing a great deal of exciting music to a mere ‘Ah’. Or something like that.

Liz Turner, Producer: Aren’t you forgetting something?

…Yes. Come and see the show – it will be splendid.