On 3rd February 2016 nine BBCM children and a guest child attended the dress rehearsal – in practice amounting to a performance – of Mozart’s Magic Flute at the English National Opera. Below see their reviews of the event.

On Wednesday the 3rd of Feb 2016 I went with my BBCM class to see my first ever opera - "The Magic Flute". I even got a day off school.
My seat in the first row of the balcony was a bit low so I was sitting on my lunch box and on the coats of two boys to make it a bit higher but I was also standing a lot to see the stage well.
I enjoyed watching the conductor conducting with his stick.
I read the surtitles but later my sister Lia also helped me and explained what she read.
My favourite part was the aria of the Queen of the Night.
I liked the girl, Pamina. She had a beautiful white dress. The three ladies were funny when they punished Papageno with a yellow plaster on his mouth and a bucket on his head.
I was a bit tired during the performance. I did not like the wooden armrests because I could not put my head there to rest. But all in all I had a brilliant day and I want to sing the famous bit from the Queen of the Night's aria.
Aya Letz-Cohen (age 5)

On Wednesday the 3rd of Feb 2016 I went with my BBCM class to see my first ever opera - "The Magic Flute". The head teacher in my school allowed me a day off school because it is such an important event. In the morning I jumped out of bed very excited, especially after those long weeks of preparations at home (watching the opera, even an animated version, and listening to the music).
Daddy brought my sister and me to the ENO, where we met the other BBCM children and Agnes.
The seats were a bit low so everybody helped the two of us to make them higher. Agnes even gave me her coat to sit on. The stage was a bit far but I could still see all the actors and hear the music. I liked watching the conductor and I also managed to read the surtitles.
There were lots of instruments, including violins and flutes. When I heard the violins I also played with my hands and in my mind, because I learn to play the violin.
My favourite part was the aria of the Queen of the Night.
It was not boring at all to listen to the music for three hours. I had an amazing time and I will tell my school class about my amazing day at the next "show and tell" day.
Lia Letz-Cohen (age 6)

Before we went to see The Magic Flute with my music teacher, Agnes, I prepared by listening to it at home, as well as talking about the plot with my parents. At Agnes’ lessons we also listened to some of the arias and thought about their time signature, whether they started on upbeat or downbeat and whether the melodies were in major or minor.
The ouverture was dramatic and set me in the mood for the music and story. I recognised it from listening to it before. I saw the conductor well from my seat but then did not pay much attention to him and his conducting, if he was conducting in ¾ or 4/4 as we learned at Agnes, because I preferred to look to the stage once the singing started.
The Magic Flute was much funnier than I imagined. Papageno was so funny; he even played bottles as if they were parts of a xylophone. He pretended to pee into one of the bottles on stage and then all the bottles made different sounds. Papageno was my favourite character. I thought Prince Tamino was not as handsome as he should have been as he was rather fat, but Princess Pamina was more attractive.
My favourite aria was the aria by the Queen of the Night because of the way she repeated the same very high notes many times. It also reminded me of a pop song by a singer called Katy Perry who repeats the same note many times, too, but the notes are not as high. I am sure that she copied this trick from Mozart.
The costumes were modern, I wonder why. The three boys looked spooky, almost like ragged naked children. I also didn’t know why the director made them dress in such a way. My mum told me later that the director, Simon McBurney, was famous and that he was one of my mum’s favourite theater directors. She went to see his company’s plays many times.
I enjoyed The Magic Flute so much that I told my mum much about it when she came home from work, especially about Papageno. We decided to go again together and watch it on a Saturday afternoon.
Thank you, English National Opera and my teacher, Agnes, for letting me watch the dress rehearsal. I had a great time.
Julian Herbst (age 8)

First I must introduce you to the characters of Mozart’s famous opera The Magic Flute:
Sarastro
Tamino (a prince)
Two priests
The queen of the night
Pamina (her daughter)
Three ladies (attendants to the queen of the night)
Three spirits
Papagena
Monostatos
Two armed men
My favourite character was Papageno, played by Peter Coleman-Wright. It’s really funny when Papageno and Papagena (Soraya Mafi) are singing… It’s like `There’s another baby Papagena. We’ll fill the world with mini Papagenos’. That was my fav part.
I also like how Papageno gets drunk and goes into the sound effects room, gets pushed out again and shakes hands with audience members. I like the song he is singing during that part.
        The background was like a big TV screen: there was a person drawing images, and the images showed up like on a TV. When Papageno went and shook hands with the members of the audience you could see it on the screen. We could see the conductor in the pit, and on a small screen. Also, unusually there were instruments on the stage: for example I saw the flute player; Papageno played an instrument like a piano in a box. [The instrument, indeed looking like a piano in a box, was a keyboard glockenspiel or a celesta. – Agnes Kory]
        About costumes, I didn’t really like how lots of people wore trainers and Sarastro looked more like a business-man than a sorcerer/wise man/priest. But I liked the three boys. They looked like they were wearing one of those Halloween costumes with the sticky-out ribs.
        The singers were very easy to understand, unlike in the Royal Opera House. [James attended Madame Butterfly and Don Giovanni at the ROH where both operas were sung in Italian. The Magic Flute and all other operas at the ENO are sung in English. – Agnes Kory]
We sat in the first row of the balcony. When looking straight down, I could see the audiences below and I saw how very big and beautiful the theatre was.
James Majid (age 8)

On 3 February 2016 we went to see The Magic Flute at the English National Opera.
In my music lesson we had already heard some of the tunes of The Magic Flute. We also read the story of the opera and listened to the music at home, so that I knew what was happening all along. Some of the music we listened to at home was in German and was difficult to follow. I was really happy that at the English National Opera all the opera was in English; it was really easy to follow.
I recognised all the characters as they were coming on stage.
There were some really great effects on stage. For example the snake was drawn onto transparent sheets that were moved around; creating an illusion that the snake was moving.
Another great effect was the paper birds flying around Papageno. They were only white paper sheets moved around by actors dressed in black clothes; but the sound they made and the way they were moved about reminded me of birds.
I also liked that Tamino, the three ladies, Papageno and most of the other characters were coming up and moving down into the orchestra pit.
There were also transparent slides projecting the images of fire and water onto the stage.
My favourite music was of course The Queen of the Night's aria. She was very different from other versions that I saw on the internet. This Queen was in a wheelchair and two ladies were pushing her. She only stood up to sing her arias. I also liked Papageno's tune.
I really enjoyed the opera and would like to go back to see it and listen to it again.
Daniel Aradi-Posylkin (age 8)

We went to see the dress rehearsal of the Magic Flute. It was performed by the English National Opera, it was sung in English.
It was different from the ones on YouTube because it was very modern – men wearing suits and the Queen of the Night in a wheelchair.
The lady that was meant to be singing Pamina lost her voice and could not sing, but she could talk so she spoke her lines, but when she needed to sing then she moved her lips, but another lady sang for her.
From my seat I did not only see the whole orchestra but I also saw the conductor really well. I was really impressed by the singers and the orchestra. My favourite instrument was the violin because I play the violin.
The theatre looked wonderful from where we sat in the first row of the balcony.
Manya Teterina Kapichnikova, guest of the BBCM (age 9)

I would like to say a huge thank you for giving Manya this amazing opportunity. Studying Magic Flute has been the most uplifting thing she’s done recently. And she came back today, radiant and charged by the wonderful performance and the whole outing experience. Thank you for organising such a fantastic visit for the children, Agnes, this is something Manya will never forget.
Maria (Manya’s mother, on 3rd February 2016)

We came to see the dress rehearsal of The Magic Flute at the ENO. The opera was directed by Simon McBurney and the conductor was Mark Wigglesworth. In this production we could see the orchestra as well as the conductor because they were higher up instead of being low down in the pit, nearly the same height as the stage. We sat in the front row of the balcony from where we could see not only the stage and orchestra but the whole beautiful theatre. The orchestra sounded really good, sometimes louder and other times quieter depending on the dynamics of the music.
In the beginning a prince called Tamino was on stage in a purple outfit and a huge snake came onto a big screen on the wall. Tamino (played by Allan Clayton) was lost and scared and fainted. Three women came over to him and liked him so much that they started fighting over who could look after him, they each sang solos and sang together while they kept trying to lie on top of him and send the others away. They wore clothes that were a kind of camouflage pattern.
Then came a bird catcher called Papageno. He had a big box that said birds on it and this is where he put the birds that he caught. He had a deep voice when he sang, he was very funny and he looked like as if birds had pecked him and made him dirty.
The ladies gave Tamino a magic flute and showed him a picture of a princess called Pamina. The flute was always played for Tamino when he was on stage. Sometimes he went into the orchestra with the flute. They gave the bird catcher some magic bells, which were played by the glockenspiel. The women showed Tamino and Papageno the way to find the princess. Papageno found the princess by himself. He kept checking the picture of the princess he had and it was quite funny because she was exactly the same but he still kept checking every part of her and said you have legs and arms so you can't be her (because the picture only showed her face).
Tamino had to do lots of tests to prove that he was good enough to have Pamina. One test was to be silent but Pamina thought he didn’t love her so she sang very sadly. Eventually Tamino passed all the tests. Tamino and Pamina loved each other and got married. Papagano fell in love with Papagena and they got married too.
Evelyn Teague (age 9)

The Magic Flute is a very lively opera by Mozart, in two acts, and it was performed for the first time on September 30th 1791. The libretto was written in German by Emanuel Schikaneder.
Here is the basic story of the Magic Flute: There is a prince called Tamino who at the beginning is chased by a serpent and doesn’t know where he is, and then he faints. Later, three Ladies (the Queen of the Night’s assistants) come and all fall in love with him. He finds a bird catcher (Papageno) who isn’t very friendly to start with. The Ladies give Tamino a Magic Flute. It changes sorrow into joy. It’s also a love story between Tamino and Pamina. At first they can’t be together but they end up united thanks to the Magic Flute.
I liked it when the lights were switched off and it was all dark around us. I found it spooky. My favourite scene was when the swirling sea appeared on set. It looked really real and even though I knew actors were attached and tied on a rope, when they were flying around, it was still an impressive effect. Also, on stage, there is a chalk board and there is someone dressed in black who writes things on it and then it’s projected onto a big moving screen which is also see-through and sometimes you see actors behind it. It’s used at the very beginning of the opera, and mostly during the second act.
The costumes were modern. For example, Tamino wears a pair of trainers. And the night queen eventually gives him a camouflage outfit which I find very modern indeed. The three Ladies also had a camouflage when they first came on stage but Pamina wears a simple white dress. In the scene where Tamino first sees the bird catcher, the actors on stage who make the birds move are all dressed in black. It’s beautiful.
The instrument I heard the most was the violin because there was a whole ensemble. I also saw and heard the solo flute on stage. When the music started, during the overture (which was the last piece composed), there were no actors on stage so you could really concentrate on the music. The piece at the beginning was very calming music and I’m pretty sure all the instruments were playing. We had very good seats and from where we were, we could see the orchestra playing on a raised platform. I think it’s really good when there is only music playing because we have the opportunity to hear the instruments themselves.
Let me tell you briefly about the singing of the main characters. Papageno has a middle voice. I liked his voice because he can reach higher and lower range. The actress who played Pamina didn’t sing, so it was interesting because another lady sang for her – in a high voice – but she moved her lips like when singers sing in playback. Sarastro sings lower, with a deep man’s voice. It makes really nice effects. I thought it was very unique. The three ladies did not always sing together but most of the time they did. Sometimes they did small solos and then they would come back together and sing all three of them. To me, they sung fairly high.
The queen, who is always pushed in a wheelchair, sings awfully well, also in a high register.
        It’s the first time I saw The Magic Flute but I recommend this production because it’s modern, imaginative and entertaining. I had a lovely time and the BBCM children who were with me also had a nice time.
Tilia Zamparo (age 10)

I saw The Magic Flute at the London Coliseum (English National Opera) on the 3rd of February 2016 with the BBCM (Bela Bartok Centre for Musicianship). We had seats on the balcony and, though I was in the far corner, I could see the whole stage and the pit and the conductor. The acting was very good as it kept the story of the magic flute but still maintained a good sense of comedy. It had many modern aspects such as the fact that the prince Tamino was wearing trainers at the beginning. They could have put a bit more thought into the costumes because they didn't really suit the characters. For example the Queen of the Night (Ambur Braid) had a very unrealistic costume considering her role, though her singing was still amazing.
The music, composed by Mozart, was very enchanting and so was the singing. In fact, Pamina's part was not being sung by the woman on stage (Lucy Crowe) at all. It was being sung by an understudy (Reisha Adams) in the pit. However, it was so good that I didn't realize. Not only was it good but it was also clear. Even when I found out that it was in English I still thought that I wouldn't be able understand it but I could.
My favorite character was Papagena (Soraya Mafi) and my favorite singer was Pamina (that is, understudy Reisha Adams). Altogether I think that The Magic Flute is one of the most unusual operas I've ever been to because it was funny, beautiful, surprising, clever and interactive all at once and everyone should see it.
Juliette Majid (age 11)

On the 3rd February 2016 I went to see the Magic Flute (1791 - Vienna), an opera in two acts by Mozart (1756 - 1791), with a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. But I saw it at the ENO (English National Opera), where all the productions are sung in English. I was quite surprised that it was a modern and humorous production, with a good use of technology and the available space on the stage, although, originally, it is set in Ancient Egypt, around the time of Ramesses I.
The stage itself hardly ever changes, there is a large square in centre stage and it multitasks during the whole opera, featuring as a drawbridge, a conference table, an offenders’ table and also as a simple hill in the valley.
The costumes were everyday clothes for most. Tamino wears trainers and tracksuit top and bottom. Papageno also dresses in this casual style, an old man with his small backpack, but for bird catching in the trees, he always carries a ladder with him. The assistants of The Queen of the Night dress in black or in flashy army-like vests.
Since it was in English, you could understand the words, and therefore focus more on the music and the singing. I thought the violins, horns and the flutes (of course...) stood out the most as the violins played the same tune as the flutes and therefore made them stand out. The horns are quite high pitched (even when muffled) which made them the loudest of brass and woodwind, even though they play a basic tune.
One of the things that really struck me was the use of the stage, which was very unusual and not something I had seen in other opera productions I’ve been going to with my music teacher, Agnes Kory. The orchestra is set on a platform, not in its usual pit. So for example, certain characters would even go in the orchestra area which must be very distracting for the musicians and puzzling for the singers. What I found the most surprising was that the magic flute, here the first flute of the ENO orchestra, came on stage and played through her solo with the cast.
My favourite singer was Pamina, or at least the person who sung as Pamina, who sang very purely. The actress who plays Pamina had a bad chest infection and couldn’t sing so she only mimed her role and pretended to sing. To me every note the singing Pamina sang was in tune.
        My favourite part of the opera was Papageno and his magic bells scene. After Tamino has left Papageno, he realises that the three ladies have left him an entire crate of wine. Papageno takes them out and tries to make an octave sound with the bottles but ends up peeing in a bottle for this to happen. He then sings a light tune and plays “the bottles” before realizing that the bells are playing. I find this part amazing because, whilst being in a solo, Papageno manages to sing in tune, play the bells, and try not to laugh.
Overall, I think that although it’s a different experience, because it is in English, it is a really amazing production with a lot of technical work and special effects to entertain the audience. I had a really good time and I would definitely recommend you to see it. I’d like to see it again with the actress who was supposed to sing Pamina’s role, or maybe see another production, to compare.
Scipio Zamparo (age 12)

Five-year old Konstantinos Miskouri-Ottoson, a BBCM pupil, went to ENO’s Magic Flute on Friday 5th February 2016, two days after our communal BBCM attendance. He and his mother sat at the back of balcony, just in case the evening performance would get too much for young Konstantinos. However, they stayed right until the end. The next day Konstantinos asked his mother: “could we go to see The Magic Flute today too?”
Hopefully Konstantinos, as all BBCM children experiencing this Magic Flute production, will remember the event for a long time. They are unlikely to come across such a highly musical staging of Mozart’s score elsewhere.
Agnes Kory