Z5-L2

Musik: Franck Adrian Holzkamp https://www.franck-holzkamp.de

Libretto: Gerd Scherm www.Scherm.de

Initial Situation

In the “Realm of Light,” Sarastro reigns as he once did. Tamino and Pamina are married and have a son, Pictor.

Papageno and Papagena also live as a couple and adore their large group of children, including their daughter Randa, who is devoted to Pictor.
After his banishment from the “Realm of Light,” Monostatos found refuge in the “Realm of Darkness” with the Queen of the Night, who chose him as her husband. The queen still grieves over the defeat she suffered at the hands of Sarastro and his companions and plots terrible revenge.

Act 1

Nostrana, the Queen of the Night, and her husband Monostatos plan to take revenge on Sarastro and seize control of the Realm of Light. They call upon Labygord for help – the lord of the subterranean labyrinth. Half human, half animal, he embodies both animate nature and the subconscious.
Sarastro resigns his office as high priest in the Kingdom of Light to travel to the Orient as a nameless pilgrim. He appoints the reluctant Tamino as his successor.
Piktor and Randa are just beginning to discover love in all their innocence. They are further along in their spiritual development than in their erotic development and are deeply connected emotionally.
The three ladies from The Magic Flute reveal themselves as the single mothers of the three boys. Papageno, now Minister for the Environment and Nature Conservation, tries to teach the three basic things about nature and magic. However, the three boys find Papageno’s ideas utterly old-fashioned.
After a meeting between Piktor and Randa, Piktor disappears without a trace. Tamino and Pamina immediately suspect the Queen of the Night is behind this disappearance and decide to free her son. The insecure Tamino sorely misses Sarastro’s strong hand, but Pamina takes the initiative—once again.
In the grand finale of Act 1, Tamino and Pamino set out to find Piktor.

Act 2

Papageno is to administer the Kingdom of Light as Tamino’s deputy in his absence. He immediately devises comprehensive reforms, but abandons these plans because they involve too much work. Papagena assures him of her love. As in The Magic Flute, you will find fulfillment in this world: lust and love.

Monostatos hands the imprisoned Piktor over to the two guardians of the labyrinth, who lead him inside to Labygord, on a path of no return.
Near the labyrinth, the Queen of the Night awaits, revealing her name: Nostrana. Together with Monostatos, they observe their bait.

Tamino and Pamina reach the labyrinth. Despite all the warnings of the two guardians, they enter to save their son.

Randa enters the labyrinth from the other side. Sarastro, who has since returned from the Orient, arrives, but is not recognized by Randa. The three boys, who have also set out on the journey, must remain like the group: the labyrinth has no entrance on this side. They attempt to create a passage using childish magic tricks. After their failed attempts, Sarastro opens a hidden door in the wall.

In the labyrinth, the protagonists must master the task of modernity: the subconscious emerges alongside the conscious. Tamino and Pamina still approach the labyrinth purely from the rational side, the gateway side. Only Randa, as the lover, Sarastro, as the initiated master, and the three boys in their innocence are able to enter the labyrinth from the unconscious side.

Labygord is with Piktor in the center of the labyrinth. Because Nostrana lied to him, he wants to kill him to save him from a cruel fate. He believes he is freeing the boy from great suffering and sings Piktor into eternal sleep.

But Randa alone wanders through the labyrinth to find her Piktor.

Tamino and Pamina purposefully reach the center and encounter Labygord, who mournfully watches beside their dead son Piktor. Using the old tools from The Magic Flute, the flute, and the glockenspiel, they attempt to revive him, but fail; on this level, they are useless.

But Randa intuitively guides the three boys and the still unrecognized Sarastro to the center. Randa throws herself at her dead lover. Labygord recognizes in Sarastro’s words that he has been deceived and abused.

Now Sarastro asks Randa to help him revive Piktor; only together, by combining their qualities, can they bring him back to life:
Sarastro symbolizes wisdom, the teacher and master, tradition, the masculine principle. Randa symbolizes beauty, the companion, the present, the feminine principle.
Only from both principles does the strength to master life grow, the future emerges; only both components together can awaken Piktor.
Piktor awakens. Together they leave the center of the labyrinth through the great mirror of self-knowledge.

The final scene unites all the characters in the realm of light. Nostrana, the Queen of the Night, reveals her motives: she is Sarastro’s former wife, Pamina their daughter. The Queen of the Night embodies the archaic mother goddess who gives and takes life and represents darkness.
Sarastro condemns the misdeeds of Nostrana and Monostatos. But because the two truly love each other, he mitigates the punishment: as an entwined tree, they can remain united forever.

The final scenes belong to love: the opera ends with a reprise of the love duet between Piktor and Randa and a chorus.

The opera was completed in 2020.

and here a “making of” the newly set score