Út a fény felé

Veronica Swift returns to Müpa Budapest for the second time, promising to revive several noble traditions at the concert to open this year’s JazzTime programme.

What happens when the heroes of Mozart’s opera are portrayed on stage not by singers, but by finely crafted marionette figures? The Salzburg Marionette Theatre’s production offers a barely one-hour version of this iconic piece from the opera repertoire: while preserving its essential musical and dramatic pillars, it guides the audience through Tamino, Pamina, and Papageno’s adventures in a more accessible, dense form.

Mozart was insatiably in love with life. He embraced everything considered “sinful”: wine, cards, billiards. And his passion extended to musical ornaments: flowery acciaccaturas, trills, cadences others dared not risk, and chromatic runs. But there can be no doubt the main objects of his desire were women. He dedicated several of his masterpieces to one or other of his lovers, who were thus immortalised by these concert and opera arias.