Stafford Festival Shakespeare 2017 will host a performance of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute as well as an open-air production of The Tempest.
Heritage Opera will stage a “delightfully playful” version of Mozart’s work which is described as “part pantomime, part opera”. It features Prince Tamino’s embarking on a quest to rescue the Queen of the Night’s daughter, Princess Pamina, from the clutches of Sarastro and his followers.
It has been widely acknowledged that the writers of The Magic Flute, Mozart and his librettist Emanuel Schikaneder, were greatly influenced by The Tempest.
Shakespeare's final solo play will be set among the glamour and elegance of the 1930s—the “golden age of luxury cruise liners, Hollywood glamour and the dying days of vaudeville—all from a small Italian-occupied island off the coast of Somalia”.
The Magic Flute will be performed at Stafford Castle on Sunday 2 July at 8PM.
The Tempest will open on Thursday 22 June and run until Saturday 8 July. For the first time in its 27-year history, Stafford Festival Shakespeare will feature a Sunday performance on 25 June at 5PM.