Latest news with #TheMagicFlute
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Five Books That Will Redirect Your Attention
Boredom can sometimes feel like a bygone luxury in an age of screens and constant distractions—yet even with all the content in the world at our fingertips, tedium manages to creep in. Not only does it sneak up on us in waiting rooms or on airplanes; we also encounter it while scrolling idly at home. In the face of repetitive Instagram posts, cookie-cutter TV episodes, and exhausting group chats, the mind goes blank just as reliably as it might while staring out of a window. There's nothing peaceful about this mental stillness; as the day lengthens, so does the ennui. The experience of sitting around, tired and irritated, with nothing to do, may be character building, or even healthy (studies show that it can be beneficial to developing creativity). But the process is notoriously uncomfortable: Medieval monks referred to the feeling that boredom provoked as acedia and attempted to pray it away. Charles Dickens popularized the phrase bored to death in Bleak House, when the weary Lady Dedlock complains that she's on the verge of expiring for lack of excitement. The avant-garde Situationists in mid-20th-century Paris proclaimed 'Boredom is counterrevolutionary' and turned this phrase into a rallying cry. Contemporary sufferers tend to opt for some form of immersive entertainment. For those who might turn to a book, not just any one will do. Sometimes the listless mind craves action, adventure, and drama, but propulsive page-turners aren't the only way to dispel dullness. Plot twists or surprising facts can do the trick too; at times, a radically strange narrator or a weirdly compelling story is what we need. The following titles provide many ways out of malaise, each as distinctive as the varieties of boredom from which they offer sweet relief. , by Alexander Chee Chee has said that he spent 15 years writing his 2016 novel, although readers are likely to finish it in a flash—it's too much fun not to speed through. Named after the famously difficult 'Queen of the Night' aria from Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, the book follows a 19th-century American, Lilliet Berne, as she makes her way from the Midwest to a New York circus and then a Parisian brothel, finally reaching the heights of French society as an opera singer and courtesan. Along the way, she witnesses the rise and fall of the revolutionary Paris Commune, flies in a hot-air balloon, and wears an enormous amount of sumptuously described dresses. This is the kind of writing to pick up when you need to lose yourself for an afternoon inside a world radically different from your own. It is also the perfect story for readers who enjoy a little high drama that, at times, borders on camp—as is so often the case in opera. , by Peter Cornell (translated by Saskia Vogel) Cornell's book-length essay begins with a note claiming that what follows is a manuscript constructed by a researcher at the National Library of Sweden. Regardless of its actual provenance, The Ways of Paradise became something of an underground classic in the four decades before it was published in English last year. The text is structured in a series of numbered fragments, reflecting a larger fixation on spirals and mazes of all kinds—the curl of a seashell, mimicking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage's focus on eternity, or the 'ephemeral labyrinthine traces made by the folds and creases of garments'—and drawing parallels among a swath of disciplines and time periods. Burbling beneath its torrent of information is an occult murmur, even a mild paranoia: To what end are we all connected, and what do these connections mean? Although Cornell doesn't offer his audience much of an explanation, his slow deluge of intertwined facts and stories makes it hard to stop reading. Imagine this as the holy book of a new cult devoted to the spiritual possibilities of the spiral. [Read: The transcendent brain] , by Bae Suah (translated by Deborah Smith) The page-turning plot twists and thrills of a detective novel are often a very effective bulwark against boredom. The Korean writer Bae's novel offers those genre pleasures and more: It is, as Bae's longtime translator Deborah Smith explains in her note, a detective novel by way of a 'poetic fever dream.' Set over the course of one very hot summer night in Seoul, the book follows a woman named Ayami as she attempts to find a missing friend. As she searches, she bumps into Wolfi, a detective novelist visiting from Germany, and enlists him in her quest. Events take on a surreal quality, heightened by both an intense heat wave and the possibility that Ayami and Wolfi may have stumbled into another dimension. Summer's release from our usual timetables can quickly lead to seasonal doldrums. Untold Night and Day, set during the stretched hours of a sweaty, unceasing evening, shimmers at its edges, like midnight in July. , by Simone de Beauvoir (translated by Carol Cosman) America Day by Day chronicles the four-month-long trip through the United States that the French existentialist de Beauvoir embarked on in January 1947, a journey filled with mishaps, misunderstandings, and moments of joy. De Beauvoir attends parties in New York, gambles in Nevada, listens to a lot of jazz in New Orleans, finds herself confused by San Francisco, smokes marijuana for the first time, and gives a series of lectures at colleges across the nation. Although the author encountered an America still unsure of itself after the violence of World War II, many of her observations feel strikingly relevant in 2025. Between American men and women, she detects 'a mutual mistrust,' for example—their 'lack of generosity, and a rancor that's often sexual in origin' could easily be found in the present. Many of the pages documenting travels through the Jim Crow–era South dwell on the disquieting gap between the U.S. Constitution's focus on freedom and the realities of racial segregation. By the time de Beauvoir gets to Chicago, however, her mood improves, and sharp-eyed readers might notice why: There, she meets the writer Nelson Algren, who gives her a tour of the city—and, though it remains unmentioned in the text, the pair later fall in love. [Read: The philosopher who took happiness seriously] , by Lydia Sandgren (translated by Agnes Broomé) Like fellow Scandinavian Karl Ove Knausgaard's My Struggle, to which it's been compared, the Swedish writer Sandgren's Collected Works exerts a hypnotic pull on the reader over its hundreds of pages. Following the publisher of a small press, Martin Berg, as he turns 50, Collected Works initially seems to resemble a reverse bildungsroman, as Martin ponders his youth in Gothenburg, his own thwarted artistic ambitions, and his friendship with Gustav, a painter. But there's a mystery at work here too: Why did Martin's wife, Cecilia, a promising academic, abandon him and their young children years ago? Alternating between past and present—and Martin's and Cecilia's points of view (as well as, eventually, their daughter's)—Sandgren creates a more complicated portrait of a modern marriage than the book's premise might suggest. As the reader absorbs with horror the growing stockpile of Martin's betrayals over the years, Sandgren probes questions of gender, success, and ambition, creating a portrait of a man and a woman fundamentally at odds that keeps its reader spellbound. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Atlantic
What to Read When You're Bored
Boredom can sometimes feel like a bygone luxury in an age of screens and constant distractions—yet even with all the content in the world at our fingertips, tedium manages to creep in. Not only does it sneak up on us in waiting rooms or on airplanes; we also encounter it while scrolling idly at home. In the face of repetitive Instagram posts, cookie-cutter TV episodes, and exhausting group chats, the mind goes blank just as reliably as it might while staring out of a window. There's nothing peaceful about this mental stillness; as the day lengthens, so does the ennui. The experience of sitting around, tired and irritated, with nothing to do, may be character building, or even healthy (studies show that it can be beneficial to developing creativity). But the process is notoriously uncomfortable: Medieval monks referred to the feeling that boredom provoked as acedia and attempted to pray it away. Charles Dickens popularized the phrase bored to death in Bleak House, when the weary Lady Dedlock complains that she's on the verge of expiring for lack of excitement. The avant-garde Situationists in mid-20th-century Paris proclaimed 'Boredom is counterrevolutionary' and turned this phrase into a rallying cry. Contemporary sufferers tend to opt for some form of immersive entertainment. For those who might turn to a book, not just any one will do. Sometimes the listless mind craves action, adventure, and drama, but propulsive page-turners aren't the only way to dispel dullness. Plot twists or surprising facts can do the trick too; at times, a radically strange narrator or a weirdly compelling story is what we need. The following titles provide many ways out of malaise, each as distinctive as the varieties of boredom from which they offer sweet relief. The Queen of the Night, by Alexander Chee Chee has said that he spent 15 years writing his 2016 novel, although readers are likely to finish it in a flash—it's too much fun not to speed through. Named after the famously difficult 'Queen of the Night' aria from Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, the book follows a 19th-century American, Lilliet Berne, as she makes her way from the Midwest to a New York circus and then a Parisian brothel, finally reaching the heights of French society as an opera singer and courtesan. Along the way, she witnesses the rise and fall of the revolutionary Paris Commune, flies in a hot-air balloon, and wears an enormous amount of sumptuously described dresses. This is the kind of writing to pick up when you need to lose yourself for an afternoon inside a world radically different from your own. It is also the perfect story for readers who enjoy a little high drama that, at times, borders on camp—as is so often the case in opera. The Ways of Paradise, by Peter Cornell (translated by Saskia Vogel) Cornell's book-length essay begins with a note claiming that what follows is a manuscript constructed by a researcher at the National Library of Sweden. Regardless of its actual provenance, The Ways of Paradise became something of an underground classic in the four decades before it was published in English last year. The text is structured in a series of numbered fragments, reflecting a larger fixation on spirals and mazes of all kinds—the curl of a seashell, mimicking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage's focus on eternity, or the 'ephemeral labyrinthine traces made by the folds and creases of garments'—and drawing parallels among a swath of disciplines and time periods. Burbling beneath its torrent of information is an occult murmur, even a mild paranoia: To what end are we all connected, and what do these connections mean? Although Cornell doesn't offer his audience much of an explanation, his slow deluge of intertwined facts and stories makes it hard to stop reading. Imagine this as the holy book of a new cult devoted to the spiritual possibilities of the spiral. Untold Night and Day, by Bae Suah (translated by Deborah Smith) The page-turning plot twists and thrills of a detective novel are often a very effective bulwark against boredom. The Korean writer Bae's novel offers those genre pleasures and more: It is, as Bae's longtime translator Deborah Smith explains in her note, a detective novel by way of a 'poetic fever dream.' Set over the course of one very hot summer night in Seoul, the book follows a woman named Ayami as she attempts to find a missing friend. As she searches, she bumps into Wolfi, a detective novelist visiting from Germany, and enlists him in her quest. Events take on a surreal quality, heightened by both an intense heat wave and the possibility that Ayami and Wolfi may have stumbled into another dimension. Summer's release from our usual timetables can quickly lead to seasonal doldrums. Untold Night and Day, set during the stretched hours of a sweaty, unceasing evening, shimmers at its edges, like midnight in July. America Day by Day, by Simone de Beauvoir (translated by Carol Cosman) America Day by Day chronicles the four-month-long trip through the United States that the French existentialist de Beauvoir embarked on in January 1947, a journey filled with mishaps, misunderstandings, and moments of joy. De Beauvoir attends parties in New York, gambles in Nevada, listens to a lot of jazz in New Orleans, finds herself confused by San Francisco, smokes marijuana for the first time, and gives a series of lectures at colleges across the nation. Although the author encountered an America still unsure of itself after the violence of World War II, many of her observations feel strikingly relevant in 2025. Between American men and women, she detects 'a mutual mistrust,' for example—their 'lack of generosity, and a rancor that's often sexual in origin' could easily be found in the present. Many of the pages documenting travels through the Jim Crow–era South dwell on the disquieting gap between the U.S. Constitution's focus on freedom and the realities of racial segregation. By the time de Beauvoir gets to Chicago, however, her mood improves, and sharp-eyed readers might notice why: There, she meets the writer Nelson Algren, who gives her a tour of the city—and, though it remains unmentioned in the text, the pair later fall in love. Collected Works, by Lydia Sandgren (translated by Agnes Broomé) Like fellow Scandinavian Karl Ove Knausgaard's My Struggle, to which it's been compared, the Swedish writer Sandgren's Collected Works exerts a hypnotic pull on the reader over its hundreds of pages. Following the publisher of a small press, Martin Berg, as he turns 50, Collected Works initially seems to resemble a reverse bildungsroman, as Martin ponders his youth in Gothenburg, his own thwarted artistic ambitions, and his friendship with Gustav, a painter. But there's a mystery at work here too: Why did Martin's wife, Cecilia, a promising academic, abandon him and their young children years ago? Alternating between past and present—and Martin's and Cecilia's points of view (as well as, eventually, their daughter's)—Sandgren creates a more complicated portrait of a modern marriage than the book's premise might suggest. As the reader absorbs with horror the growing stockpile of Martin's betrayals over the years, Sandgren probes questions of gender, success, and ambition, creating a portrait of a man and a woman fundamentally at odds that keeps its reader spellbound.
Korea Herald
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
Don't rain on my opera: Seoul to stage ‘The Magic Flute' under the stars
Third open-air production aims to broaden opera's appeal What if it rains during an open-air opera performance? That's the question for the organizers of the Seoul Metropolitan Opera's outdoor production of Mozart's "Die Zauberflote" (The Magic Flute), scheduled for June 1 and 2 at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul. With fingers crossed -- and some cautious optimism drawn from weather data -- they're hoping the skies will stay clear, not just for comfort, but because they have a grand plan for transforming the city center into an open-air opera stage, part of a broader effort to make opera more accessible to the public. For the first time, the main staircase of the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts will be turned into a stage, making the performance easily visible from anywhere in the square. A five-meter-high LED screen will also be installed, allowing people across the square to enjoy the performance. Rain would be a major letdown for the roughly 6,000 people expected to attend over the two-day run, including the lucky 1,980 who secured free tickets when they became available online on May 9. All the tickets were gone in under a minute. According to the organizers, another 4,000 people are expected to gather around the stage without tickets, just as they did last year. Rain disrupted the first edition of the open-air opera in 2023, forcing performers to sing to a pre-recorded orchestra track. Last year, however, the company's gamble paid off: 'Cavalleria Rusticana' went ahead as planned, thanks to what artistic director Park Hye-jin called a strategic choice based on years of weather data. This year, the decision was trickier. 'Gwanghwamun Square has become a popular venue, and our scheduling window was limited,' Park said. 'Among the dates offered, we chose the one with the lowest historical chance of rain.' In the event of more than 5 millimeters of rain, the performances will be canceled, according to the organizers. Should that happen, another group likely to be disappointed is the citizen chorus -- a 137-member ensemble drawn from four local choirs who will take the stage with Hankyung arte Philharmonic under the baton of conductor Kim Kwang-hyun. Most of the citizen ensemble have little to no experience performing in a professional opera production, making the opportunity especially meaningful. The size of the citizen ensemble has grown significantly -- from 79 members in 2023 to 123 last year -- in response to overwhelming public interest and the organizers' desire to broaden community participation. 'I never imagined myself even watching an opera production, let alone singing in one,' said Kim Sok-woo, who is participating in the production for a second year as a member of the citizen ensemble. 'Last year, I brought my mother and mother-in-law to the performance. It was their first opera in the nearly 80 years of their lives. They loved it and asked me to invite them again this year.' The citizen ensemble will be joined by the Winner Opera Chorus, a professional vocal group. Their joint appearance, said Park, will highlight the transformative power of choral music. 'There's a unique power in choral singing -- many people coming together on stage, not just professional vocalists but everyday citizens as well," Park said. Directed by Jang Jae-ho, the production will feature tenors Kim Hyo-jong and Konstantin Lee as Tamino, and sopranos Kim Soon-young and Yang Gui-bee as Pamina. The role of the Queen of the Night, who sings the iconic aria 'Der Holle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen,' will be shared by Lee Ha-na and Celine Mun. Now in its third year, the open-air opera series is presented by the Seoul Metropolitan Opera, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Both performances will start at 7:30 p.m. Reserved seats not claimed by 7:00 p.m. on the day of the performance will be released to those waiting onsite.
South China Morning Post
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
In Mozart's The Magic Flute by Opera Hong Kong singers outstanding, staging disappointing
Opera Hong Kong's new production of The Magic Flute is a conundrum: the singing, acting and music are first rate, but they are let down by a misjudged concept and designs. Mozart's final opera, despite being written when he was suffering from illness and financial woes, is among his most joyous. The libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder, a popular entertainer, offers a combination of low comedy and lofty sentiments. He and Mozart were both Freemasons and the work has strong masonic elements, advocating universal brotherhood and calling for people to seek harmony and enlightenment. The fairy-tale plot is far removed from the more realistic drama of other Mozart operas like Don Giovanni or The Marriage of Figaro. The mysterious Queen of the Night promises the young hero, Tamino, the hand of her daughter Pamina if he rescues her from the mighty priest Sarastro, who has kidnapped her. Setting out on this quest, the high-minded Tamino is contrasted with his companion, the bird-catcher Papageno, whose only interests are food, drink and finding a girlfriend.
Time Out
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Mozart's opera ‘The Magic Flute' is coming to Hong Kong
Hong Kong's first professional opera company, Opera Hong Kong (OHK), will present a contemporary rendition of The Magic Flute, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's last opera before his death and a staple in the global operatic repertoire. Director Shuang Zou has reinterpreted this two-part opera with a modern stage setting, embellished by costumes from renowned designer Dan Potra. The original storyline follows Prince Tamino as he gets sent on a quest by the Queen of the Night to rescue her daughter Pamina, armed with a flute that can transform sorrow into joy. Opera Hong Kong's new iteration of the 1791 classic is set in the modern city, and begins in an MTR station – sounds like it will be a quirky, fantastical journey as the characters travel between reality and dreams to achieve their happily ever afters. Mexican-German tenor Andrés Moreno García stars as Prince Tamino, while Pamina will be played by American soprano Sofia Troncoso, and the iconic Queen of the Night by Russian soprano Aigul Khismatullina. We can't wait to hear her perform the famously challenging 'Der Hölle Rache' aria! The production will be a collaboration between Opera Hong Kong, China National Opera House, and the State Opera South Australia, joined by the children's chorus of OHK, and promises to be a splendid audio-visual feast. After premiering in Hong Kong, the show will then go on to an international tour, so be the first to see it on stage.
