Review: A playful, visually dazzling production finds the "magic" in Mozart's The Magic Flute
Goth-steampunk getups, a forested maze, and some powerhouse singing make for a fun night out at Vancouver Opera
The Magic Flute’s Kirsten MacKinnon—a show highlight—with Clarence Frazer and Roger Honeywell. Photo by Emily Cooper Photography
Vancouver Opera presents The Magic Flute on October 26, 28, and 29 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre
SINCE PREMIERING OVER two centuries ago, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s singspiel opera The Magic Flute has been interpreted and re-interpreted thousands of times, with treatments ranging from the serious to the zany—a Star Trek version at University of Mobile comes to mind. Vancouver Opera’s last foray into the work fell into the former camp; it was a very earnest Indigenous-themed production that re-envisioned the work as a transformation story, incorporating Musqueam language into the libretto and paying homage to Pacific Northwest Coast art in its costumes and set design.
This time around, sincerity has been replaced with playfulness. It’s arguably more successful—and a lot more fun. The production, first staged at the Canadian Opera Company in 2011 and helmed here by the Arts Club Theatre’s artistic director Ashlie Corcoran, adheres closely to the original libretto, but with a slight twist. It’s set in 1791, the year that the opera first premiered, and is framed as a “play within a play” being presented on the grounds of a nobleman’s garden.
The action begins, not with Prince Tamino chased through the woods by a dragon, but with an actor playing Prince Tamino, chased across a small stage by someone lurching comically about in a three-headed dragon costume. It’s an important distinction that helps release the work, and the cast, from the weight of its convoluted plot. Let’s face it; the story is fairly ludicrous, with its odd melange of fairy tale, romance, and a heavy dose of Masonic ritual. Relax, this staging tells us, we know it’s ridiculous. Now let’s have some fun.
The first act is rife with physical humour, much of it courtesy of the Three Ladies, attendants of the Queen of the Night, sung in perfect balance by sopranos Melody Courage, Stephanie Tritchew and Emma Parkinson. In their goth-slash-steampunk getups, they preen, flirt, and tease, exaggeratedly squabbling over Tamino’s unconscious body after he has fainted from fright.
Stephanie Tritchew, Emma Parkinson, and Melody Courage as the Three Ladies. Photo by Emily Cooper Photography
As Tamino, solidly played by honey-voiced tenor Owen McCausland, moves deeper into the story, passing through his various trials, the stage-on-a-stage device recedes, and by Act II it is dispensed with altogether. Things get a little darker, with the protagonists now caught in a forested maze, but the charm persists. Baritone Clarence Frazer, as the playful bird-catcher Papageno, is energetic and likable—engaging the audience to such an extent that, by the time he mock-threatens to hang himself in misery over his inability to find a wife (for all its frivolity, there’s no escaping the misogyny and incel-lite elements of the work, but that’s 18th-century Vienna for you) an audience member on opening night called out, urging him not to do it.
Of course, one of the big anticipations of any Magic Flute performance is the reveal of Queen of the Night, with her virtuosic coloratura arias that push the performer’s range to limits. Soprano Audrey Luna struggled a bit on Saturday to nail her pitches, but didn’t let the vocal wobbles throw her off too much—and she regained control enough to land the famed high F6 of the “Rage Aria”. Plus, she certainly looked breathtaking, wrapped up in a studded leather corset, spiky headpiece, and mountains of black tulle twinkling with multicoloured sparkles. Her getup is one of a number of visually dazzling pieces that elevate the production into a feast for the eyes, as well as the ears.
The real star of this staging, apart from the set pieces and costumes of designer Myung Hee Cho (for the original Canadian Opera Company production), is soprano Kirsten MacKinnon, in the role of Pamina. The Vancouver native and Grand Finals Metropolitan Opera Laffont winner boasts a rich, luscious tone and sensitive musicality that earned her well-deserved rapturous applause. If there’s one reason to catch this show, MacKinnon is it.
But she’s far from the only draw. Even though it’s been 232 years since it was first revealed, this production proves that Mozart’s most popular opera is as magical as ever.
Audrey Luna and the cast of The Magic Flute. Photo by Emily Cooper Photography
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