THE MAGIC FLUTE
By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The Merry Opera Company
Director: Kit Hesketh-Harvey
As part of the Lamberhurst Music Festival (in aid of St. Mary’s Church, Lamberhurst, Kent), The Magic Flute was performed in the open air among the ruins of Bayham Abbey on the evening of August 3.
The setting was evocative, with the stage set in front of three ruined arches towering overhead through which the clear blue sky shone, gradually deepening in colour (after the interval) as dusk was followed by night. To see this pagan story, with its Masonic, occult and Enlightenment overtones, enacted against a backdrop reminiscent of a Christian (architectural) heritage was striking.
