Review: Opera San Jose captivates with Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute’

With its contrasting elements of light and dark, lofty sentiment and low humor, Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” can be a challenging opera to bring to life.

The new Opera San Jose production, which opened Saturday at the California Theatre, manages to unite the competing threads of the composer’s late-life score — although, at times, it almost feels like two operas being performed on the same stage.

On one hand, it’s a comic fairy tale with a prince and princess, a vengeful queen, fanciful puppets and some awfully cute kids. On the other, it’s a behind-the-scenes look at a secret fraternity (the Masonic pledge that Mozart himself embraced late in life), with a temple of initiation, a series of fairly grim trials and lots of pondering on the nature of good and evil.

In his new production, director Brad Dalton strives to integrate both sides. Dalton, a frequent Opera San Jose director who staged a terrific production of Mozart’s “Idomeneo” a while back, gives weight to each competing element (the opera is sung in German, with spoken parts in English). By evening’s end, though, the lighthearted episodes still feel more consistently animated, while the darker scenes come across with far less flair.

Dalton’s staging tipped its hand in the first moments of Saturday’s three-hour performance. As the overture began, the characters usually described as Three Boys — here, Three Genies — came onstage dressed as junior Mozarts, followed by a group of kids in animal masks, each one holding a puppet. The opera took place inside a storybook frame. Even the giant menacing serpent was cute.

In contrast, the scenes around the temple of the evil Sarastro were fairly static. The stage was sparsely set, with a few neon palm trees to mark the exterior and a dark mirrored wall dominating the interior. The arias tended to be stand-and-sing affairs, with the chorus seated on risers, observing.

Despite the imbalances, this “Flute” was often captivating. Conductor Joseph Marcheso led a precise, enveloping orchestral performance of Mozart’s score. Andrew Whitfield’s chorus sang with distinction, and the vocal soloists, many of them returning from February’s excellent production of “Where Angels Fear to Tread,” inhabited their roles with vitality.

Hae Ji Chang was an especially fine Pamina. Making her company debut, the soprano sang the role of the tormented princess with lovely, crystalline tone, rising to a touching “Ach, ich fuhl’s.” Tenor Kirk Dougherty was a handsome Tamino, but his vague characterization of the young prince didn’t make a very deep impression. As the birdcatcher Papageno, Matthew Hanscom got off to a slow start, but his singing became more robust as the evening went on, and his good-hearted antics were consistently endearing. He was particularly animated in his final scene with Jennie Litster’s perky Papagena.

Isabella Ivy’s Queen of the Night was theatrically vibrant, if not always tonally precise, and Silas Elash was a sturdy Sarastro. David Margulis deployed a smallish tenor as Monostatos, and Christopher Filipowicz was a bland Speaker. Some of the evening’s most beautiful Mozart vocalism came from the Three Ladies, sung by Elizabeth Baldwin, Chloe Smart and Lisa Chavez. And those Three Genies — Chris Salinas, Daniel Ostrom, and Winter Felton-Priestner — were irresistible.