Preview
Mozart's "The Magic Flute"
• Presented by: Arizona Opera.
• Conducted by: Joel Revzen.
• Sung in: English with English surtitles.
• Running time: 3 hours, with intermission.
• When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday.
• Where: Tucson Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave., Downtown.
• Tickets: $26-$114 through Ticketmaster, 321-1000; or the opera, 293-4336.
• Synopsis: A fantastical journey through lands teeming with serpents and monsters. A dashing prince in search of a missing princess. Love conquering evil. All this set against Mozart's most lyrical, gorgeous music.
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Four years ago, the Arizona Opera surveyed its audience: What productions would you like to see?
Near the top of the list: Mozart's "The Magic Flute."
"Out of all the Mozart operas, 'Magic Flute' came out on top. Perhaps it's because it's an opera that appeals to all ages, all walks of life," the company's artistic director, Joel Revzen, said as he prepared Arizona Opera's first production of "Magic Flute" in a dozen years.
"It's a piece that can be accessed on so many different levels. It can be a fairy tale for children — Tamino lands in this world, he's pursued by a serpent," Revzen added. "But the deeper you dig into rational versus irrational thinking . . . the more you get into this ambiguous realm."
"It's a tricky piece because it has a complicated plot and there's so many ideas," said stage director Thaddeus Strassberger. "You sort of pick and choose which ideas you want to bring to life. I want to have the audience leave the theater knowing a story — maybe not the story — but a story that's contained within it."
Strassberger is making his Arizona debut with the production, which runs Saturday and Sunday in Tucson and next week in Phoenix. He is using the sets he designed for a Utah Opera production in 2006.
"There's not a textbook version of places," said the 32-year-old Oklahoma native, who has conducted and designed sets for opera companies throughout the United States and Europe. "This Egypt that we've created on stage is very much through the eyes of our hero, Tamino, who is more a European. He is sort of a Western soldier/prince that's ended up in this strange, exotic land called Egypt."
At the heart of "The Magic Flute" is a love story between Tamino, a young, naive prince, and Pamina, the beautiful princess he is trying to find. Tamino has never met Pamina; he has only seen her picture, provided by her mother, the Queen of the Night, and he has fallen in love with the image. His love leads him to agree to undertake a fantastical journey through a land rife with evil forces, including serpents and monsters, to save Pamina from her kidnapper. Along the way, Tamino's eyes are opened to the world around him.
As Tamino becomes more immersed in Egypt through his search, he sees its realities for what they are.
"We're not just seeing hieroglyphs from a book. We're seeing some things that are more fantastical and more in sort of Technicolor because they're so dazzling," he said.
"Things are not black and white. Things are gray," added Revzen, who is conducting the production. "We live in a world that is often ambiguous and confusing. We are all looking for answers. Many of the questions lead us to ambiguous answers."
That ambiguity is perhaps the biggest draw for fans of "Magic Flute." Is it a morality tale with religious undertones? Is it a fantasy? Or is it an attempt by Mozart to impart his deep-held Masonic philosophies?
Any and all, depending on your interpretation, Revzen said. For Revzen, the magic and wonder of "Magic Flute" lies in the music.
"The genius of Mozart, I believe, is unsurpassed. It's as close to perfect music as you can get," he said.
Did you know . . .
Mozart's "The Magic Flute" is regarded as one of opera's most beloved works. Today it is the 10th most performed opera in North America. This is the fourth time Arizona Opera has mounted the work in its 35-year history — the 1973-74 season; 1978-79; 1996-97; 2007-08.
Source: Opera America
