LA-based Pacific Opera Project has recreated the Mozart opera,The Magic Flute, with aNintendotheme. The original opera was one of Mozart’s last works, premiering just two months before his untimely and mysterious death. TheNintendothemed performance sees Donkey Kong alongside Mario, Wario, and Link take to the stage.
While Shigeru Miyamoto has more or less confirmed thatSuper Mario Bros 3was indeed just a play, the closest that Nintendo has come to showing its classic characters on stage has been with the poorly received 1993Super Mario Brosmovie, and more recently the more promisingThe Super Mario Bros. Movie.
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Pacific Opera Project has changed this; as a group with the aim to provide “quality opera that is accessible, affordable, and entertaining,” it has blended pop culture with Mozart before in Mozart andStar Trek, and Mozart andScarface. They have even performed aNintendothemedMagic Flutein 2019, featuring the characters Donkey Kong, Wario, Zelda, and Pit from Kid Icarus. The re-imagining of The Magic Flute goes by the title of Superflute and sees Link take on the role of adventurer Tamino, while Mario takes the role of bird collector Papageno. Tamino is sent on a quest to rescue the princess Pamina, in a story mirroring that of atypicalLegend of Zeldaplot.
The original work is considered to be quite complex and demanding of its vocal performances. While Link is no stranger to musical instruments, and the characters do fit quite well to the plot, the leap to such an opera may be considered quite a stretch culturally. However, the idea of the same kind of narrative being available across such a wide gap in medium does strengthen the argument for games to be considered a “true” art. This concept along with other strong cases, such asBioshockimpacting the idea of games artby using parallels to famous literary work, continue to make a bold case.
Elsewhere, players are making strides to bridge the gap between pop culture and high arts in the unlikely setting ofFallout.Fallout 76players have hosted a Shakespeare festivalwhere they have recreated classic plays such asA Midsummer Night’s DreamandRomeo and Juliet. These efforts, whether by players in game, actors on stage, or by developers creating the games, show that the world of video games has a lot of potential to communicate to an audience on many different levels and connect people in ways that may have seemed to be impossible.
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