BOOK REVIEW:
A charming re-invention and enchanting tale that is drawn from the libretto of WA
Mozart’s famous opera The Magic Flute.
The essence of this opera came about from Mozart’s interest in Freemasonry.
The author’s mastery of story-telling
captures the imagination that may not necessarily only be enjoyed by children
but adults as well. Well written, the style is lively and engaging.
Edith’s simple line drawings enhance
this timeless tale that incorporates the many facets of the human condition and
encourages the reader to enjoy the music of Mozart.
A Wymer
Adelaide SA
Australia
The music of Mozart is my inspiration for writing this book.
My entire source comes from listening to the lyrics of a three CD set of the
opera: Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute)
I have translated it from German to English and endeavoured to create an
entertaining story for young readers.
This story involves adventure, magic, deceit, romance, humour and tragedy.
It is a tale of human emotions.
Although the tale is basically fantasy, there are serious elements in this
story.
To listen to the music of The Magic Flute
is an exciting and magical journey.
I hope that you will find my interpretation of
The Magic Flute also exciting.
v
Author Bio
Edith Bruche is now retired, but was a school teacher for
many years in several schools throughout South Australia,
including remote Aboriginal schools.
She migrated to Australia
as a young child in 1954 from
Germany
with her family.
Always interested in creative writing and the Arts she is
also very passionate about young children’s learning and development,
particularly literacy.
She also enjoys photography, drawing, learning about other
cultures, languages and her corgis.
It’s almost midday and the sun sits high above in the sky.
An eagle swoops down to catch his ‘lunch’.
A youth with an olive complexion and good looks, lies buried in one of the many
sand dunes, of the vast, open desert.
He opens his brown eyes, blinks rapidly and wipes the sand from his face.
Any attempts to get up and dig his way out of the coarse, grainy sand are
wasted!
As he struggles to stand up, he topples over and falls flat on his face.
Suddenly he becomes aware of a giant serpent with scales as large as dinner
plates and blazing eyes, nearby.
Even though he is weak, an incredible rush of adrenalin helps him to rise
without any effort!
The giant serpent senses the young man’s fear and slithers toward him.
Loud cries of ‘Help help, someone please help me!’ are now heard across the
desert, but it seems pointless as there is no one around.
Not surprisingly the young man’s desire to run is mind-blowing, so he gives it
his best effort.
However, because he is so exhausted and the sand is deep like an ocean,
he collapses and
falls to the ground again.
This time he plunges into a deep sleep.
Fortunately it seems that his cries were not unheard!
As he
lies on the scorching sand, three mysterious Ladies suddenly appear,
like in a fairy tale!
Their faces are covered with long veils and in their hands they hold silver
spears.
The Ladies are attendants to the Queen of Night and were sent to kill the
serpent, which they did competently.
Although the young man doesn’t know it, his destiny is in ‘the hands of the
Gods’.
He is in the ‘Realm of Night’.
The young man’s name is Tamino, the son of a King in a faraway land.
As he lies unconscious, there is no doubt that he needs to be taken care of and
the Three Ladies are certainly more than happy to undertake
this task.
They think he is absolutely gorgeous.
They hover around Tamino and gaze adoringly at him.
‘Who is going to take care of him?’ is the question on their lips.
They argue amongst themselves until finally they decide that none of them will
stay.
‘We can easily watch over him from a distance,’ they decide, but
before they
leave, they blow him a kiss and then run off giggling like
little girls.
Tamino is completely oblivious to all of this.
When he eventually wakes, which, incidentally is after quite some time,
he hears the
delightful sound of pan pipes and singing.
Alone, lost and confused, Tamino sits up and sips the last trickle of water from
his bottle.
While he contemplates his situation, he suddenly observes an
exceedingly
strange image
coming toward him.
He can’t work out if it is a person or a creature.
As the image moves closer, he notices that the head, neck and shoulders are
covered with countless coloured feathers, while on its back is a large bird
cage.
The cage is filled with a variety of birds.
‘What a strange
and weird sight,’
are Tamino’s thoughts.
‘I wonder if I should be alarmed?’ he speaks out aloud.
Then he notices the lifeless serpent lying on the ground in the
distance and his
memory slowly returns.
‘Whoever has slain the serpent has saved my life.’ Again he speaks out loud.
‘Aha I remember
now, I was with a group of people and there was a humongous
sandstorm, I must have
become separated from them.
‘It seems I’ve
been wandering around in
circles and got myself lost.
‘I wonder where
the other people are.
‘Then there was
that giant serpent and that’s the last thing I recall.’
These are the thoughts of Tamino.
‘I thank the Gods that the serpent is dead!’ Tamino shouts out at the top
of
his
voice.
In the meantime, the strange ‘feathered creature’ is now within an
arms
length of him and Tamino, although generally a polite and tactful young
man, stares
rudely at him.
However, he decides that this ‘person’ doesn’t seem to be a threat; as a matter
of
fact he seems
surprisingly friendly.
He questions the stranger suspiciously.
‘Hello happy wanderer, who are you?’
‘What a silly question, can’t you see I am a man just like you?’ he answers. ‘My
name is Papageno. If I asked you, who you are, how would you react?’ Papageno
cries out,
feeling
somewhat
annoyed.
To which Tamino answers, ‘I would give you this answer: My father is King and
reigns over
many
lands and many
people far beyond those hills and that makes me a prince. My name is Tamino.’
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