Since Mozart completed “Die Zauberflöte” (“The Magic Flute”) in 1791, his light operatic fantasy has been reimagined many times. The MET Live in HD presents one of the most whimsical iterations of the colorful, comic and charming work at Saturday’s matinee.
Beginning at 10:55 a.m., Julie Taymor’s version of “Flute” will be live streamed to the Fort Lewis College Vallecito Room. Taymor is America’s own theatrical magician, and her dazzling production launched more than a decade ago is still an audience favorite.
Famous for “The Lion King,” her spectacular, puppet-filled Broadway musical, Taymor created a whole new version of Mozart’s famous “Flute.” You’ll see giant puppets, elaborate masks, startling headdresses and blazingly colorful costumes. And, of course, you’ll hear Mozart’s playful, exhilarating, dazzling and also scary music that makes the story of a fairy tale-with-villains come to life.
In The New Yorker, critic Alex Ross wrote that Taymor’s production is a “shimmering cultural kaleidoscope with all manner of mystical and folk traditions blending together.”
In the last decade of the 18th century, Emanuel Shickaneder, a Viennese actor-impresario and fellow Freemason, urged Mozart to compose a popular opera to be sung in German. Both men needed money, and both believed in the ideals of Freemasonry – reason and balance.
Mozart created “Flute” for a popular audience, hence the libretto was in German, not the more conventional Italian. And the form is known as a Singspiel, or song-play, the predecessor of today’s American musical theater. Songs are sung as “numbers” with connecting tissue in the form of spoken dialogue and stage business that drives the story forward.
Schickaneder’s quirky allegory about the human quest for meaning centers on Prince Tamino. He accepts the Queen of the Night’s charge to rescue her daughter, Pamina, from the supposedly evil priest, Sarastro, the Queen’s very own Rex Tillerson. To do so, the Prince must pass a series of tests. His sidekick, a befuddled bird-catcher named Papageno, has his own problems. Together, the two men stumble through a landscape filled with obstacles and odd creatures in pursuit of their own goals.
Despite the triumphant opening scene, the road to an inevitable happy ending is far from smooth. Fantastic creatures appear and almost derail the quest for love and freedom. Ultimately, “Flute” is a buddy opera with a scary villainess who, if defied, will drain the whole swamp on a whim. Be prepared when the Queen of the Night channels her rage and sings a blistering, Tweet-storm of an aria. You’ll never forget it.
The inimitable James Levine conducts; Taymor conceived the production, designed the costumes, and created the puppets. Tenor Charles Castronovo sings the Prince, soprano Golda Schultz sings Pamina, baritone Markus Werba portrays Papageno, super soprano Kathryn Lewek sings the impossible-to-sing Queen of the Night, and the great bass René Pape portrays Sarastro.
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theater Critics Association.
If you go
What: The Met: Live in HD presents Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte” (“The Magic Flute”)
When: 10:55 a.m. Saturday
Where: Vallecito Room, Student Union, Fort Lewis College
Tickets: $23 adult; $20 for seniors over 65 and children; $5 for FLC students with ID. Available at the door, online at www.durangoconcerts.com, by phone at 247-7657 or at the Welcome Center at Eighth Street and Main Avenue.
More information: Running time: 3 hours 9 minutes. One intermission. Sung in German with English subtitles.
