ENTERTAINMENT

Review: Voices trump clever staging in 'Magic Flute'

Kerry Lengel
The Republic | azcentral.com
Sarah Tucker as Pamima and Ian McEuen as Monostotos in Arizona Opera’s “The Magic Flute.”

On the evening of the death of actor Leonard Nimoy, the cast of Arizona Opera's "The Magic Flute" paid homage with an impromptu Vulcan salute inserted, appropriately enough, into a scene at the Temple of Wisdom.

It was a funny and a touching moment, yet it couldn't but make one wonder what Mr. Spock, Nimoy's relentlessly logical half-alien character from "Star Trek," would have made of all the supernatural silliness on the stage.

As an allegory of right living and enlightened society, Mozart's fantastical comic opera is a couple of centuries out of date. In a sort of "Alice in Wonderland" plot, an ancient prince finds himself caught up in a battle between the deceptive Queen of the Night and the benevolent sorcerer Sarastro. Our hero, Tamino, must learn the "manly" virtues of courage and truth to overcome the womanly wiles of the queen and her libininous servants, and thus be rewarded with the hand of the queen's daughter in marriage.

A feminist critique is hardly required. It would be shooting fish in a barrel.

To bring "The Magic Flute" into the early 20th century, if not the 21st, director Dan Rigazzi has orchestrated a new staging inspired by the surrealist art of René Magritte and the neo-Victorian look of "steampunk" (a sort of low-tech retro science fiction).

The latter influence shows up mostly in the costumes (by Leslie Bernstein), such as the leather aviator caps on a trio of spirit-children who guide Tamino through his quest. The former conceit manifests in the bowler-hatted costuming for Tamino — portrayed in this production with disarming callowness by David Margulis — and in a set (by John Pollard) composed of giant dilapidated picture frames. Behind and through them glow unobtrusive video projections that set the scene and, more to the point, lend a dreamlike quality to the proceedings whose chief purpose seems to be persuading the audience not to take them too seriously.

There is a charming children's-theater feel to "The Magic Flute," which, unlike most operas, includes spoken-word interludes, performed here in English rather than the German of the libretto. These scenes enable the performers to breeze through the exposition, although, in the cavernous expanse of Phoenix's Symphony Hall, they also make for some clunky acting. (One exception is baritone Chad Sloan, who provides welcome comic relief as Tamino's less-than-courageous sidekick, the bird catcher Papageno.)

Yet, like most of the operatic canon, "Magic Flute" has survived on the strength not of its storytelling but of its music. And here it is those wily, flighty women, particularly the two lead sopranos, who take command.

Lindsay Russell plays the Queen of the Night, and she is a diva divine, delivering her famously, fiendishly difficult coloratura aria with such natural ease that you might wish we still lived in the days when they would halt the performance for an encore or two. As as her daughter, Pamina, Sarah Tucker sings with purity and vivacious charm in a succession of duets that are simply irresistible.

The surrealist staging concept is an effective one, but it's those voices make "Flute" a magical experience.

Reach the reviewer at kerry.lengel@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4896.

Arizona Opera: 'The Magic Flute'

Reviewed Friday, Feb. 27. Remaining performances: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28; 2 p.m. Sunday, March 1. Symphony Hall, 75 N. Second St., Phoenix. $25-$135. 602-266-7464, azopera.org. Also: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 7, and 2 p.m. Sunday, March 8. Tucson Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave. $25-$120. 520-293-4336.