Mozart’s African jacket: Die Zauberflöte and its localisation in The Magic Flute (Impempe Yomlingo)

Abstract

This article investigates, through a historical-interpretivist and post-apartheid lens, the change in time, space, context and symbolism in a localised or indigenised South African version of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, K. 620. It addresses the lacunae between desiderata expressed in the White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage in June 1996 and the conceptualisation of the localised opera The Magic Flute (Impempe Yomlingo) through a discussion of the migration of the characters and symbolism.

Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa, Volume 9 2012, 67–80