Damon Albarn’s New Electric Opera
Damon Albarn has revealed details about his upcoming electric opera, “Magic Flute II: La Malédiction,” which will debut at Theâtre du Lido in Paris on March 27.
Inspiration and Creative Process
This opera draws inspiration from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s work in 1807, “The Magic Flute Part II,” which continues Mozart’s original opera from 1791, albeit without any musical composition.
“The notion of composing an opera that continues the Magic Flute feels absurd. It was not just about encountering the brilliance of Mozart; I had to confront various challenges,” Albarn explains. “I suppose I approached the question of how I could possibly do this in a relatively simplistic way. The inspiration came from an incredible source, none other than Kraftwerk.”
Producer Jean-Luke Chlin, who has previously worked with Albarn on “Monkey: Journey to the West,” elaborates on the project’s realization: “While reading Benoit Cantra’s book about Friedrich Hölderlin, Le Clocher de Tubingen, I learned that Hölderlin had attended an evening in Tubingen where he shared his sentiments about being part of a magic flute ‘Singspiel’.”
Chlin adds, “As Hölderlin and Goethe prophesized, and paraphrasing Benoit Cantra, this electro-opera reflects on a possible ‘European night,’ especially in an era when glaciers are melting. This new endeavor serves as a thoughtful way to contemplate our world and extract moral lessons as well as optimism from it.”
