“The Magic Flute” is Mozart’s final opera, performed for the first time mere months before his death, and was an instant success, quickly becoming one of the most famous and celebrated operas of all time. It has returned to the Los Angeles Opera for the fourth time in its current iteration.
This edition of “The Magic Flute” is a collaboration headed by Barrie Kosky of the Komische Oper Berlin opera company and the British theatre production company 1927, which has currently returned to LA Opera. This production marks conductor James Conlon’s final opera as music director for LA Opera.
Looking to create a version of the opera that breaks from the familiar, Kosky and 1927’s “The Magic Flute” is a unique take on the classic, with a visual style inspired by both the likes of 18th-century engravings and the 1920s silent film era.
The whole stage is a beautifully animated landscape projected against a screen, with the performers interacting with the larger-than-life spirits and creatures of the story and the surreal landscapes seamlessly.
“The Magic Flute” is a fairytale love story, borrowing from several different cultures and traditions.
After being rescued from the maws of a monstrous serpent, young Prince Tamino (Miles Myakken) is tasked by the Queen of the Night (Aigul Khismatullina) to rescue her captive daughter Pamina (Sydney Mancasola) from the wicked Sarastro (Kwangchul Youn). Gifted a magic flute and a set of magic bells to protect them on their journey, Tamino and his accomplice Papageno (Kyle Miller) travel to Sarastro’s Temple and come to learn that the truth of the circumstances may not be exactly as the Queen of the Night has told them.
Throughout the story, our heroes undergo trials and find strength and truth within themselves, learning virtues and casting out wickedness in order to be worthy of their true love.
First performed in Berlin in 2012, the Komische Oper Berlin/1927 production of “The Magic Flute” is somewhat atypical, doing away with all spoken dialogue – the whole production moves from song to song. While some of the connective tissue from scene to scene is lost, the plot is no less weak for it. The beautiful animation on display does much to convey the story without words; Tamino’s magic flute and Papageno’s magic bells are represented by fairies or spirits that whimsically dance about the stage.
The 1920s film style does much to complement the surreal and magical world of its story. The antics of the comedic Papageno bring to mind Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, and the animation itself is quite impressive. Blending the fantastical and the mechanical, our heroes meet with armies of clockwork animals on parades, fire-breathing giants and the gigantic spider-like Queen of the Night, and perform fantastic feats running through the halls of ancient palaces and flying through dark forests, while the words they sing are brought to life around them.
The animation is evocative of the stop-motion animated films of Lotte Reiniger, whose animated silhouette films awed audiences throughout the early 20th century and her self-adapted segments from “The Magic Flute,” and brings to mind the rich world of film that was present in Germany during the 20s and 30s.
The opera is for everyone; all it takes is a bit of adventurousness to experience the magic of it all.
“The Magic Flute” is currently performing at the LA Opera through the month of June, with shows on June 11, 14, 17 and 21. The June 17 performance will mark LA Opera’s annual Pride Night in partnership with the Opera League of LA, hosting a special post-performance gathering for attendees at Massilia at The Grand LA. For details, visit www.LAOpera.org/pride.