Vivid New Magic Flute

San Francisco Opera has a winner in its production of Mozart's final opera, The Magic Flute. The performance Saturday night, both musically and dramatically, was splendid. The production, created by Gerald Scarfe for Los Angeles Opera in 1992, is indeed magical, featuring a pyramid that can morph into many structures, a fabulous snake, a beguiling collection of hybrid animals (such as a giraffestrich on stilts and toe shoes), and quasi-Egyptian iconic lions. New costumes and sets replaced those that have worn out over 15 years, and the lighting and sound effects keep track of the weather artfully, creating night and day, thunder and lightning as required. Mozart and Conductor Donald Runnicles set just the right tone for the opera in the overture, alternating thoughtful, uplifting themes with exuberant cascades of sixteenth notes. The story: Sarastro, priest of an order devoted to Wisdom, Reason, and Nature, has kidnapped Pamina (for her own good) from her mother, the Queen of the Night. In the ensuing custody battle, the Queen of the Night enlists the aid of the prince, Tamino, to whom she gives a magic flute that will help him to find and rescue Pamina. She sends the bird catcher Papageno to assist Tamino, giving him some chimes that will come in handy in a crisis.

All photos by Terrence McCarthy

Piotr Beczala has just the right kind of tenor voice for Tamino — strong, secure, sweet, and infused with heartfelt emotion. From his first gorgeous outpouring of love, as he gazed at Pamina's picture ("Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön / This portrait is bewitchingly beautiful"), you knew he was the man for the job. Tamino is a prince, capable of selfless action, lofty thoughts, and enlightened leadership. Papageno is more of a hobbit, content with the pleasures of food, drink, and family life. Tamino will show himself fit to become a follower of Sarastro and gain Pamina's love. The most that can be hoped for Papageno is that he will become honest. He provides comic relief in this high-stakes story, and represents the ordinary human condition.

An Expertly Comic Papageno

Christopher Maltman, fantastically feathered, was a terrific Papageno and a master of comic timing, alternately swaggering and cowering. His strong baritone anchored several ensembles, and his command of the lyrics was stellar. His reward for being generally good-hearted was a feathery Papagena, Rhoslyn Jones, who starred in a spectacular costume change.

Dina Kuznetsova, an outstanding Pamina, is blessed with a beautiful sound and an expressive sensibility. When Tamino, under a vow of silence, refused to speak to her, she sang a melting "Ach, ich fühl's" (Oh, I feel all is lost), lamenting his seeming indifference and seeing nothing but death left to her. And when that misunderstanding was cleared up, she convincingly joined Tamino in his final tests. As Pamina shows the rather misogynous Order that she is worthy of Tamino, so did Kuznetsova show herself to be Beczala's equal as a singer.

Few sopranos can sing the two stratospheric and wide-ranging arias given to the Queen of the Night, and fewer still can sing them well. Erika Miklósa is one of this select company, and got the biggest ovations of the evening. Her entrance in the first act, floating down from the ceiling, was magical, but placed her far back on the stage. She was perfectly audible but sounded far away. Fortunately, her second act aria blazed out splendidly from the front of the stage. Sarastro also has wide-ranging arias, plumbing the depths of the bass voice. Georg Zeppenfeld has the range for the role. His voice is not really potent, but his singing of "In diesem heil'gen Hallen" (In these sacred halls) was eloquent. I don't know why he and the Speaker (Philip Skinner in this performance) had to be made up with such gray faces. Somehow they looked more subhuman than superhuman.

Greg Fedderly, outrageously costumed as the would-be rapist Monostatos who is supposed to be Pamina's custodian, provided expert comic scenes, along with Papageno. The three ladies who serve the Queen were excellently sung by Elza van den Heever, Kendall Gladen, and Katharine Tier. The three boys who accompanied Tamino and saved Pamina traveled in a marvelous, bird-shaped flying boat and sang in tight, well-tuned ensemble. They were Christopher Borglum, Zachary Marius Pedersen, and John Ribeiro-Broomhead.

Everybody Shake on It

Most productions of The Magic Flute have a problem deciding what to do with the chorus of priests and members of the Order, and this one is only partially successful at solving it. Chorus members were costumed in masks and exotic headdresses (Masonic Egyptians?), and each and every one shook hands with Sarastro during their long entrance in Act 2. (If it was a Secret Handshake, that wasn't evident.) But the chorus sang Mozart's lovely music beautifully, so never mind.

If ever you could argue that opera should be performed in the language of the audience, The Magic Flute would support the argument, considering the frequent use of spoken lines. But the cast for this performance sang and spoke their German lines clearly, possibly better on balance than they might have done in English. And of course there are supertitles.