Renata Carola Gatica / Reviews

"Magic Flute" is special in that it combines a simple play, sometimes based on folk and sometimes on a typical Mozart's playful melodic style, with the deepest and most serious pages of a musical score from the last year of the author's life RIJEKA Mozart's "Magic Flute", 230 years since the composer's death, was premiered last night at the Croatian National Theater Ivan pl. Zajc - for the first time on the Rijeka stage. It is the author's last opera and one of the most successful and most famous operas of all time, and the Rijeka performance was conducted by maestro Valentin Egel , chief conductor of the Rijeka Symphony Orchestra, and directed by Renata Carola Gatica . This timeless story of symbolic struggle between good and evil, personified in the characters of the high priest Sarastra and the Queen of the Night, which includes love stories of Prince Tamin and Princess Pamina, as well as birders Papagen and Papagena, abounds in many famous musical numbers and geographical barriers. "The Magic Flute" is special in that it combines a simple play, sometimes based on folk and sometimes on a typical Mozart's playful melodic style, with the deepest and most serious pages of a musical score from the last year of the author's life. The special charm stems from its fairytale, cheerfulness and colorful gallery of characters, while according to some interpretations, Masonic symbolism can be recognized in it. Although he composed it, on a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder, near the end of his life, Mozart nevertheless led the premiere in Vienna in 1791 and experienced its success only two months before his death. Along with director Renata Carola Gatica, the author team of Rijeka's first "Magic Flute" consists of set designer and costume designer Sandra Dekanić, choreographers Carlos Huerta Pardo and Michele Pastorini and lighting designer Dalibor Fugošić. Cast: Filip Filipović, Darija Auguštan, Viktorija Đurđek, Ivan Šimatović in alternation with Dario Bercic, Gabrijela Deglin in alternation with Moran Pleše Petruševski, Vanja Zelčić, Lorena Krstić, Sofija Cingula in alternation with Ivana Srbljan, Slavko Segalić and Marko Fort , and actors and actresses of Croatian and Italian drama, students of the Study of Acting and Media of the Rijeka Academy of Applied Arts, members of the Torretta Children's Choir and the Rijeka Symphony Orchestra and the Rijeka Opera Choir are also participating. After a three-hour performance, the performers and the author's team were accompanied by long applause, shouts of 'bravo' and standing ovations.