Though not quite on a level with “Wicked” and “The Lion King,” the silent film inspired production of Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute” as conceived by Barrie Kosky (intendant of the Komische Oper Berlin), Suzanne Andrade and animation specialist Paul Barritt (of the London theater company 1927) has become an international sensation.
When Los Angeles Opera’s president and CEO Christopher Koelsch first saw it in Berlin, he was so impressed he canceled his company’s plans to revive it’s oft-seen “Magic Flute,” designed by Gerald Scarfe as part of the 2013-14 season, and substituted the Kosky/Andrade/Barritt production in its place.
It was a bold move on short notice that paid big dividends. The show, with its dazzling and endlessly clever design scheme mimicking the look of a silent film, was a hit. In my review at the time, I referred to it as “a must see!”
Now the production has returned. But before the curtain rose at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Saturday, I experienced the type of trepidation one often feels when you go to a show that blew you away for a second time.
Would it be as good? Would it feel fresh and maintain the ability to make me laugh, smile and even shed a tear? Or, might all that visual impact lose its luster the second time around?
Happily, the production has lost none of its luster or its ability to please. And with a new sterling cast under the leadership of L.A. Opera’s music director, James Conlon, it remains every bit a “must see.”
The year Mozart began work on “The Magic Flute” — 1790 — things were not going well. The composer was in debt, his health was diminishing, and his career, particularly in Vienna, had been stymied by an “Italian cabal” headed by court composer Antonio Salieri (as anyone who has seen the film “Amadeus” can tell you).
It was at that time that Mozart received an offer initially to create a puppet opera from a friend of his, the actor/singer/entrepreneur Emanuel Schikaneder, who operated a popular people’s theater called the auf der Wieden.
I cite these circumstances because the style of popular entertainment that was offered at the auf der Wieden might easily be equated with the type of popular gathering place a silent movie house would come to represent 120 years or so later. And this is exactly the marriage of art forms that inspires (and works so well) in this production of “The Magic Flute,” relying, as it does, on a dazzling succession of perfectly integrated projections against a single white wall (with revolving doors) that comprises the set. The production also substitutes silent film narrative placards for the opera’s less- than-Shakespearean spoken dialogue.
For those unfamiliar with “The Magic Flute,” (a situation this production should remedy ASAP), the opera is a fairy-tale fantasy overlaid with a profound message of peace through universal brotherhood — a reflection of Mozart’s introduction to the realm of Freemasonry.
Basically, it’s a story about a child custody battle.
Young and beautiful Pamina (soprano Marita Solberg) has been abducted by her father, the mighty sorcerer and head of the Temple of Isis, Sarastro (bass Wilhelm Schwinghammer).
Her equally powerful and vengeful mother, the Queen of the Night (sung by high-flying newcomer So Young Park) is determined to get her back, so she sends her three henchwomen (Stacy Tappan, Summer Hassan and Peabody Southwell) to find a handsome young prince, Tamino (tenor Ben Bliss).
To help him achieve this goal, the ladies provide him with an aide, the Queen’s official bird-catcher, Papagano (baritone Jonathan Michie), rather like Sam and Frodo. There are also three young boys (Micah Luna, Brandon Takahashi and Caelan Carter) who appear now and then to offer helpful advice.
Bliss, a towering young tenor who hails from Prairie Village, Kansas, is a wonderful Tamino, possessing exactly melodious tone that Mozart’s music calls for. Visually, he resembles an elegantly tuxedod version of Harold Lloyd to Michie’s humorous antics as a Buster Keaton style Papagano.
Solberg, who possesses a sweet lilting soprano, appears as a spunky flapper version of Pamina, a la Clara Bow, while the opera’s leering villain, Monostatos (tenor Benton Ryan) is cast as silent cinema’s first vampire, Nosferatu.
Interestingly, this is a production that distinctly points up the significant flaw in Mozart’s plea for universal brotherhood — namely the role and treatment of women. Throughout this “Age of Reason” opera, women are portrayed as either decorative love objects that distract men from achieving lofty/spiritual goals or as sex-crazed vengeful bitches!
At the same time, the production casts a critical eye on the honorable men that control the Temple of Knowledge, depicting Sarastro and Company as sternly imperial high-hated fathers of the Industrial Revolution.
The production also takes some interesting liberties by depicting the magic flute itself as a music-dispensing version of Tinkerbell, while Pagagano’s magic bells appear as a chorus of dancing belles.
Ultimately, it is the music that triumphs above all, so ably conducted by James Conlon, so ably sung by the fine cast and chorus.
And it is worth noting that the longest sustained ovation of the night, went to the Queen of the Night, sung with string-of-peals clarity and stratospheric high notes by emerging star So Young Park!
Jim Farber is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer.
Want to go?
Rating: 4 stars
When: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 20, 24 and March 2; 2 p.m. Feb. 28 and March 6.
Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.
Information: 213-972-8001, laopera.org.
