Picture Book: "Mozart's The Magic Flute," written by Mi-ok Lee, illustrated by Edmée Cannard

 

Here we find another beautiful, memorable storybook retelling of The Magic Flute. I discovered it in the children's corner of the San Francisco Opera's outstanding gift shop. It was first published in Korea in 2016 and was written by Mi-Ok Lee, with illustrations by the French artist Edmée Cannard. It belongs to the series Music Storybooks, which introduces children to classical music in all its forms. This seres also features adaptations of The Nutcracker, Aida, The Marksman (Der Frieschütz), A Midsummer Night's Dream (meant to introduce Mendelssohn's incidental music), Swan Lake, La Traviata (!), The Carnival of the Animals, Turandot, and Peter and the Wolf.

The Problem of Monostatos's Race

 

What to do about Monostatos in modern productions of The Magic Flute?

As far as the libretto’s problems of ethics are concerned, the misogyny can be worked around. The priests’ anti-woman pronouncements can be played in a way that clearly mocks them. Pamina can be given a dimensional and warmly human characterization that’s far more than a standard fairy-tale damsel. The Queen can be portrayed as a tragic villain driven to extreme actions by sympathetic motives, The ending can be staged  as a celebration of man and woman’s unity, in which Tamino and Pamina become fully equal partners who strengthen each other. But the issue of racism can’t be dealt with quite so easily. Unless the libretto is changed, a black Moorish slave is inescapably portrayed as a lecherous and sadistic yet inept comic villain. He preys on the white Pamina and repeatedly threatens to kill her for her scorn, whom Papageno initially thinks he's the Devil because of his dark skin, and he's portrayed as needing to be restrained and punished by his master Sarastro.