The magic of Opera Orlando’s comic ‘Flute’
Considering it is centuries old, Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” happily manages to pull off some surprises, thanks to Opera Orlando’s clever and inventive staging of the comic adventure tale.
The first one occurs as the curtain rises and our hero, Tamino, is fighting a dragon, as the story dictates. But this dragon is a fanciful creature designed by Nic Parks of MicheLee Puppets. The large-scale animal puppets are just part of the inventive and engaging production design by Grant Preisser — who also wrote the English dialogue and directs.
The second surprise came from leading man Tyler Nelson, who as Tamino, on opening night delivered his first lines so soft-spokenly that my heart began to sink. Then he began to sing, asking the gods to deliver him from the monster, and my fears disappeared at the pure, ringing — yes, heroic — sound of his tenor.
As his sidekick, Papageno, Brian James Myer provided yet another surprise. Orlando audiences have seen Myer in the comic “Barber of Seville” but I had no idea he could be this funny. With a tone perfectly suited for Preisser’s humorous-with-a-modern-sensibility dialogue, Myer engagingly demonstrated why Papageno is often the character the audience leaves talking about — no small feat in an opera that features one of the most famous melodies in all of music.
That would be the Queen of the Night’s famous “Der Hölle Rache,” and soprano Kathryn Bowden
provided the thrill that comes from watching a person make something tremendously difficult appear so easy. Bowden also soared on the Queen’s Act I aria, and her stern presence grounded the story’s flights of fancy.
The plot, although a bit intricate, is easy to follow and essentially sees Tamino and Papageno conquering challenges on the way to true love. You can find deeper themes in the characters and in the lyrics: “Without people accepting each other, there is no happiness on Earth,” characters sing. But seeking out hidden depths isn’t necessary to enjoy the show.
In fact, Preisser’s production seems designed to encourage the audience to enjoy this “Flute” as escapist entertainment. The
aesthetic is graphic-novel animé — and it’s gorgeous in costuming and set pieces, including a structure that lights up in geometric patterns (though the constantly shifting lights during “Der Hölle Rache” are too much).
Conductor Chaowen Ting gets beautiful sound from the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra that’s not too heavy for a show as fanciful as “Magic Flute” — and special notice must be given to principal flutist Colleen Blagov, whose crystal-clear notes shine.
One sound quibble: The three youngsters playing spirits were seemingly using microphones, perhaps to sound more ethereal or perhaps simply because of their age and inexperience. While they had fine stage presence and each sang
well individually, the audio amplification threw their voices distractingly out of balance.
Luckily, that was not the case with the “fierce women” in the employ of the Queen of the Night, who had the kind of gorgeous blend in which you can’t tell where one singer ends and the next one begins.
There are other treats, too: Gabriel Preisser, as the villainous Monostatos, raging about the stage like some kind of Stephen King scary clown on steroids. As damsel in distress Pamina, Magdalena Kuźma glows with warmth and strength.
She even makes you forget how quickly her character abandons her own mother (I mean, even if Mom is evil, she’s still Mom), a flaw of
the libretto. Another flaw that this production doesn’t overcome: The ultimate defeat of the evildoers is not particularly climactic.
A quartet of dancers, choreographed by Maxine Montilus with African-Caribbean influences, adds a jolt of visual energy. Their undulations and other rhythmic movements also reinforce the idea that the adventures of Tamino and Papageno take place somewhere out of the ordinary: A mysterious temple overseen by the high priest Sarastro, given the requisite solemnity by William Meinert, in good voice but underplaying a bit for a production this brash.
With the orchestra, dancers, puppeteers, adult chorus, children’s ensemble, dramatic scenery and eye-catching costumes — all in the sophisticated setting of Steinmetz Hall — this production truly feels like “grand opera.” But even more important, this is a production in which everyone onstage looks as if they are having fun. And for the audience, that fun translates into magic.