Get to know: Mozart’s The Magic Flute

Lyric’s production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) is playing November 3-27, so you could possibly be seeing it on a very cold night. We can guarantee that when you leave the theater, you’ll feel like the sun is shining — that’s how totally exhilarating a great performance of this opera can be.

Barrie Kosky, the Australian-born artistic director of Berlin’s celebrated Komische Oper, makes his long-awaited Lyric debut with this extraordinary production, already acclaimed in Berlin and around the world. It transports the opera to a world that hints at 1930s German Expressionism. It’s also “partly an homage to silent movies of the 1920s [taking] live video to new heights on the opera stage, with the singing characters seamlessly interacting with cartoons” (The Guardian).

In The Magic Flute, we have the forces of the Queen of the Night pitted against her enemy, the high priest Sarastro. He’s abducted the Queen’s daughter, Pamina. The Queen promises Prince Tamino that, if he rescues Pamina, the girl will be his. Accompanying him on his quest is the Queen’s birdcatcher, Papageno. Tamino finds Pamina, but in order to win her, he must endure difficult trials created by the brotherhood ruled by Sarastro. Papageno must go through trials as well, in order to win the girl designated to be his, Papagena. In the end, Tamino passes the trials and wins Pamina. Papageno fails, but nonetheless — after attempting suicide — he’s rewarded with Papagena. The Queen and her evil cohorts are vanquished by Sarastro.

A brilliant American conductor, Karen Kamensek (debut), who’s won accolades with opera companies and orchestras all over Europe, will be on the podium. She’ll lead a cast of dazzling young artists. Only two of them have appeared at Lyric before: Chinese soprano Ying Fang (Pamina), following up on her success here as Zerlina in Don Giovanni; and American tenor Brenton Ryan (Monostatos), who riveted audiences as the Fool in Wozzeck. The ardent Belarusian tenor Pavel Petrov sings Tamino, the scintillating French coloratura soprano Lila Dufy is the Queen of the Night, the elegant British baritone Huw Montague Rendall is Papageno, and the imposing Kuwait-born German bass Tareq Nazmi is Sarastro.

Come enjoy The Magic Flute, a production you're sure to talk about for seasons to come!