The Magic Flute

 Yesterday evening we went downtown (Chicago) to see "The Matchbox Magic Flute." Mozart's The Magic Flute is one of my absolute favorite operas (tied with Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro). I told my husband I will always go see the Magic Flute.

Operas, like plays, are not always the same. The staging can make a huge difference in how the audience perceives the story and message. The productions of the Magic Flute that we have seen range from the exquisitely magical to awful, in my opinion. My favorite production was at Indiana University. We went because  our daughter was playing in the orchestra. The staging was beautiful and playful. The main stage piece was a tall, wise wooden structure with doors that opened, swinging out like windows showing a singer from the shoulders up. At several times "Mozart" himself appeared in a window. The Magical Flute should be magical and this one was.

We've also seen this opera a few times at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. One staging put the story in the backyard of a young boy who was directing the opera. Some of the costumes were bedsheets! But once the story started, we were only aware of the setting from time to time. We were immersed in the story.

The last time we saw it at Lyric, I hated the staging. It was very high tech, with quite a lot of filmed bits. Like, the Queen of the Night, who first appears as a bereaved mother asking the hero (Tamino) to save her daughter (Pamina) from the wicked Sarastro. Later we come to see that she was deceiving Tamino. This particular production gave away her evilness in the first time we saw her. The high tech projection gave her a set of spider legs and tried to trap Tamino even as she is trying to convince him to save Pamina. Not cool, in my opinion.

The Matchbox Magic Flute was a whole different thing from any Magic Flute I had seen. It was at Chicago's Goodman Theater, in a tiny theatre space. The singer-actors were mostly not opera singers. They sounded more like musical theater singers. It was in English (not German) with a much smaller cast. There was quite a lot of modern humor, and it was much shorter than the original. Very clever staging in a small space with minimal props. 

Just one more Magic Flute I have to include, and that is Ingmar Bergman's version. It is also wonderful, in a different way. It takes place in a theater, and he shows us audience members watching the opera now and then. He also shows the singer-actors backstage, taking naps, etc. It is delightful.