La flauta mágica = The magic flute = Die Zauberflöte

Rolf and Heidi Abderhalden of Mapa Teatro direct the Ópera de Colombia in the 'The Magic Flute' by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mapa Teatro's rendition of the classic singspiel explores the magic nature of its plot, placing the piece at the crossroads of fantasy, comedy and philosophy - the realm of dreams, that mysterious zone of humanity. In this surreal performance (where fantastic masks, multimedia projections, surreal costumes and magnificent opera singing coexist) faces are almost imperceptible, gestures are almost intangible, psyche becomes voice, voice becomes body, body becomes space, space becomes time, and characters are constantly transfigured and transformed. One of the foremost artistic companies in Colombia, Mapa Teatro (www.mapateatro.org) has been producing theater, performance and art installation projects since 1984. Founders and directors, Rolf and Heidi Abderhalden have created a wide ranging repertoire of theater, opera, mixed-media performance, and site-specific installation. Their work proposes richly textured visual metaphors in which they consider often complex psychological, social and political relationships. Committed to experimentation, and less interested in the actor as an 'agent of fiction, ' they describe their project as 'a laboratory of social imagination, ' that offers a space for presenting community issues and human concerns in media and performance. This combination of real-life situations and sites along with highly stylized aesthetic staging produces a tension between real action and (re)presentation. Mapa Teatro draws from live events captured on video such as the demolition of a neighborhood in Bogotá, ritual practice, and texts that explore the relationship of postmodern subjects, myth and metaphor. Mapa Teatro has performed by commissions, festivals and collaborative projects world-wide. Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics