alas-my-name-is-not-fabrizio asked:
Do you interpret Sarastro as being Pamina’s father?
leporellian answered:
personally i don’t! i find the idea of pamina not being sarastro’s daughter (which was how it was in the original libretto) more interesting and thematically relevant. reasons being:
- the queen and sarastro’s mortal enemyhood, to me at least, is more interesting when it ISN’T a divorce spat… i think that simplifies what should really feel more like an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. plus there is something distinctly weird about seeing a non-romantically-involved man and woman fighting and going Omg what if it was an (ex-)romance thing, at least to me; i think a woman and a man should be able to do all the crazy psychological two-hamsters-in-a-tank enemyhood stuff without it being romantic.
- i like the idea of pamina kind of (at least initially) hating sarastro and the idea of him being her mother’s mortal enemy who ABDUCTS HER TO INSINUATE HIS OWN IDEAS INTO (without any sort of familial connection) really adds 2 that
- the whole thing, at least imo, is really rooted in the idea of the eclipse- two opposites coming together and welding as one. if pamina is the offspring of the queen of the night and sarastro, she already Is that unity; tamino hence loses his relevance as a character. which doesn’t feel right (and i am also the one and only tamino fan i love that little guy)… in my mind pamina is the moon tamino is the sun and they inherit those positions from the queen and sarastro respectively. their union is the eclipse and the balancing of the sides, not either of them specifically. also i feel like there’s some cool potential to parallel tamino and sarastro’s relationship in act 2 w/ pamina and the queen’s…. why does nobody ever jump on that…….
if you want what i would do regarding sarastro and fatherhood, check out my magic flute adaptation over at @song-ofthesky… where multiple characters are sarastro’s children and none of them are pamina!
