Director's Note for The Magic Flute

Welcome and thank you for coming to tonight’s performance of The Magic Flute! We appreciate your support and we hope you enjoy this wonderful tale of good triumphant over evil.

In this opera, things are not always as they appear. At the beginning, the Queen of the Night seems to be in distress that her daughter has been kidnapped she persuades Tamino that Sarastro is an evil villain. It is only later that we find out that the Queen of the Night is actually nefarious and that Sarastro is Beneficent. Papageno, desperate to find a wife, encounters an old woman who, in the end, reveals herself to be the 18 year old Papagena, a perfect match for him.

Many diverse and complex characters live in this world. Tamino, a foreigner to this land, is courageous and is willing to risk his life to save the beautiful Pamina. Pamina loves her mother, the Queen of the Night, despite her abusive actions toward her, including the horrifying demand to murder Sarastro with a dagger. The Queen of the Night obsesses incessantly about how to reclaim the power that her deceased husband gave to Sarastro. The 3 Ladies, servants of the Queen, are a lively bunch, full of personality. The bird-catcher Papageno, a bit of a simpleton, has a good heart, but shirks in the face of danger. Papagena is a beautiful young woman who is a perfect match for him. The 3 Spirits are a force for good guiding Tamino and Papageno and protecting others from danger. Sarastro is an old, wise, and beneficent high priest of the Temple, whom the Speaker tries to emulate. Monostatos is a shady character who is grossly infatuated with Pamina. I emphasize this because I am in such awe at the marvelous menagerie of characters that we are able to bring together in the space of a few hours.

These colorful characters are brought to life by our wonderful singers. I want to thank each and every one of them for their hard work and dedication to making this production possible. I also want to thank my production team for collaborating on the set, costumes, lighting, sound, props and dramaturgy. We are very fortunate to have the BYU Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Kory Katseanes. I want to thank each and every one that is involved in putting this opera on. I love this highly collaborative art form and I hope you have a memorable experience tonight.

Dr. Joshua Lindsay

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="376"] Margaret Roper[/caption] Margaret More Roper: Scholar and Daughter by Adam White, dramaturg Thomas More was a family man; he was married twice and had four children with his first wife, Jane Colt. After being married for six years, Jane Colt More died, leaving More with four children: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cecily and John. However, More quickly remarried to the widow Dame Alice Middleton, marrying her within a month of his wife’s death. While many of his friends resisted the rapid nature of the arrangement, More went through with it. Thomas and Alice More would raise the four children Thomas More had with Jane, as well as Alice’s daughter from her previous marriage and a foster daughter. Certainly, More valued his family and the welfare of his children. More also valued the power of education. He insisted that his daughters be educated through rigorous schooling, and this was unusual in 16th-century England, as society at large believed women unfit for scholarly pursuits. Despite cultural and institutional norms, Margaret More, the eldest of the More children (and More’s favorite, some would argue), would grow to become one of the most educated people in all of England, a woman of great scholarly knowledge. Margaret More Roper was tutored at home and became well-known for her studies, particularly for her adeptness in Greek and Latin. Her skill in writing and speaking Latin would impress the clergy of England. This specialty is reflected in a scene in Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons where Margaret and King Henry VIII engage in a bit of Latin language sparring. She would also become the first woman who was not of royal birth to publish a translated book. In October 1524, Roper published an English translation of a book called ‘Precatio dominica’ written by Thomas More’s good friend Erasmus. This book was based on the Lord’s Prayer. Instead of translating the book directly from Latin to English, Roper would use her extensive knowledge of both languages to construct the themes and the meanings Erasmus had written in to the treatise with her own words. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="291"] Erasmus, Dutch humanist and good friend to Thomas More[/caption] It was Margaret who would visit the imprisoned Thomas More the most often. They were very close, writing letters to one another regularly the duration of their relationship. It was in a letter to Margaret that Thomas More confided, “I do nobody harm, I say none harm, I thinke none harm, but wish everybody good. And if this be not enough to keep a man alive, in good faith I long not to live.” We have good reason to believe that Margaret More Roper very well understood what would be her father’s fate. After Thomas More’s execution, Margaret More Roper and her husband William Roper would continue to carry on his legacy in their own ways. William Roper would write the first biography of Thomas More, a glowing and gracious document that would influence our understanding of More’s personality for hundreds of years to come. Margaret More Roper actually kept her father’s head after his beheading, pickling it to preserve it from decay. While many of us may find that historical tidbit a tad macabre, I would like to believe that Margaret More Roper had deep admiration for her father; perhaps it was out of this feeling she kept his head. Please stay tuned to the 4th Wall Dramaturgy Blog to catch clips of my interview with Mallory Gee, the actress who will portray Margaret More Roper in BYU’s A Man for All Seasons. Bibliography: Abernathy, Susan. "Margaret Roper, Daughter of Sir Thomas More." Early Modern England. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2014. Duerden, Richard. "A Man for All Seasons." Telephone interview. 31 Jan. 2014. "Margaret Roper." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Sept. 2013. Web. 02 Oct. 2013. "Sir Thomas More Quotes and Quotations." Sir Thomas More Quotes and Quotations. Luminarium. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.

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Director's Note for The Magic Flute

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