Damon Albarn reveals he is currently working on an opera

nme.com:

Damon Albarn has revealed he is currently in the process of working on an opera as well as new music for Gorillaz.While appearing on the Broken Record Podcast, Albarn shared he is putting Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s 1807’s The Magic Flute Part II to music for the first time.

The 1791 original was an opera in two acts to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder.“I’m doing an opera at the moment, using Goethe’s fragment he wrote about The Magic Flute Part II, which is fascinating,” he said.He continued: “You’ve heard of Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute’?

Well, Goethe, who is a contemporary of Mozart, wrote ‘Part II’ of that — the sequel — but it never got put to music. It’s this legendary lost thing.”Though Albarn is a successful musician fronting iconic bands such as Blur, who have been playing a string of successful comeback shows – including two nights at Wembley Stadium – and the cartoon group Gorillaz, he admitted to feeling like an idiot when working in the world of opera.“I don’t really know what I’m doing.

I never know what I’m doing in that world, I’m a complete idiot. I don’t know if it’s any good. With songs, I’m more confident about that,” he explained.The singer also shared that there is a new Gorillaz album in the works with a completely new sound.