Character ask: Sarastro (The Magic Flute) and my OC Alesta (An Eternal Crown)
Tagged by no one, but inspired by @madmozarteanfelinefantasy
Favorite thing about them: His belief in peace and forgiving his enemies, as expressed in "In diesen heil'gen Hallen"
Least favorite thing about them: It's a tossup between his sexism, the fact that he's a slaveowner, and his general streak of ruthlessness in the name of "the greater good," especially at Pamina's expense.
Three things I have in common with them:
*I like the feeling of belonging to a spiritual community.
*I can be stubborn about what I think is right or wrong.
Three things I don't have in common with them:
*I think slavery is appalling.
*I'm nowhere near as firm in my beliefs and convictions.
*I can't sing those low notes.
Favorite line:
In diesen heil'gen Hallen,
Kennt man die Rache nicht. -
Und ist ein Mensch gefallen;
Führt Liebe ihn zur Pflicht.
Dann wandelt er an Freundeshand,
Vergnügt und froh ins bess're Land.
("Within these sacred portals, revenge is unknown, and if a man has fallen, love guides him to his duty. Then, with a friend's hand, he walks, glad and joyful, into a better land.")
brOTP: His fellow priests.
OTP: I'm with you, @madmozarteanfelinefantasy – nobody.
nOTP: Pamina or the Queen of the Night. As much as I like the Bergman film, I agree that it's incredibly tedious and annoying to see "Sarastro is Pamina's father and the Queen of the Night's whole war against him is just an overblown divorce battle." AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN by new adaptations! And as for the alternate, less popular but no less valid theory that Sarastro is secretly in love with Pamina... as an interpretive choice, I have mixed feelings about it, but would I ever want them to actually become a couple? No possible way!
Random headcanon: He wasn't the founder of the brotherhood, but an orphan whom the priests took in and raised, and who grew up absorbing and mastering their teachings until he finally became their leader when the previous High Priest either died or stepped down due to old age. The parallels with Tamino are obvious. This is canon for Alesta in An Eternal Crown (see below).
Unpopular opinion: I'd rather see him portrayed as a morally gray character than either a flawless paragon of wisdom (which by modern standards of ethics, he clearly isn't) or a villain (which would require a complete flip of Mozart and Schikaneder's intent and leave Tamino and Pamina's future as uncertain at best, bleak at worst).
Song I associate with them: "O Isis und Osiris"
"In diesen heil'gen Hallen"
Favorite picture of them:
Kurt Moll, Metropolitan Opera, 1991:
Unknown bass, National Theatre, Budapest:
Georg Zeppenfeld, Covent Garden, 2015:
Unknown South African bass from the Isango Ensemble's Impempe Yomlingo:
Morris Robinson, Metropolitan Opera, 2019:
Alesta, the female Sarastro figure from my gender-bent Magic Flute retelling, An Eternal Crown
Favorite thing about them: Her belief in peace and forgiving her enemies, and the safe haven she provides for the poor and oppressed to heal and thrive.
Least favorite thing about them: The fact that she's so absorbed in her ideals that she's slightly detached from other people's emotional needs and pain. She's less ruthless than Sarastro can be, but she still shares this flaw with him. In her case, though, it at least has an explanation: her backstory is a trauma conga line to rival that of Obi-Wan Kenobi, whose characterization is an influence on hers.
Three things I have in common with them:
*I sometimes use spirituality to cope with inner turmoil.
Three things I don't have in common with them:
*I'm younger than she is.
*I'm more emotional than rational/philosophical.
*I've never been homeless or a near-victim of genocide.
Favorite line: Her final line:
“At long last, my friends, morning has truly come!”
brOTP: Her fellow priestesses, especially Imara, the equivalent of the Speaker. And in her backstory, the now-dead Queen Lusina, wife of King Vorteyo (male Queen of the Night) and mother of Zeran (male Pamina).
OTP: Nobody in the present, but possibly Lusina. Their bond isn't explicitly romantic because I didn't want to pull a Bury Your Gays, but still, the details of their friendship explicitly parallel the Sarisa/Zeran (Tamino/Pamina) romance in some ways, Lusina eventually died in Alesta's arms, and it's clear that deep down Alesta is still grieving the loss and that this is partly the cause of her aloofness. (I've often said to myself that in the above-mentioned Obi-Wan Kenobi comparison, Lusina is the equivalent of both Padmé and Duchess Satine.)
nOTP: King Vorteyo or Zeran, for the same reasons the Queen of the Night and Pamina are my nOTPs for Sarastro.
Random headcanon: She'll eventually find her own romantic love, some time after the novel takes place. It will be with another older person, and it will be a gradual, none-too-easy process, but it will happen and it will change her for the better.
Unpopular opinion: An unpopular opinion about my own creation? I'll wait to share one until more people know her besides me.
Song I associate with them: Sarastro's two arias (see above). Just imagine them sung by a mezzo.
Favorite picture of them: None exist yet outside of my mind.
@ariel-seagull-wings, @superkingofpriderock, @vogelfanger1984, @notyouraveragejulie, @cjbolan, @madmozarteanfelinefantasy
