PREVIEW: “Mozart, Buster Keaton and Nosferatu” — LA Opera’s production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute opens Saturday

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
A shorter version of this article was first published today in the above papers.
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Los Angeles Opera: Mozart’s The Magic Flute
Nov. 23 and 30, Dec. 5, 11 and 13 at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 8 and 15 at 2 p.m.
Preconcert lecture one hour before each performance by James Conlon (except Dec. 13)
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion; Los Angeles
Information: www.laopera.org
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Komische Oper Berlin "DIE ZAUBERFLOETE"
Black and white silent film images are a unique part of a Los Angeles Opera presentation of a Komische Oper Berlin production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” which makes its U.S. debut Saturday night at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. (Photo from the Komische Oper Berlin by Iko Freese / drama-berlin.de)
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When Los Angeles Opera announced its 2013-2014 season earlier this year, one of the offerings was to be Mozart’s The Magic Flute, using a popular, 20-year-old production directed by Sir Peter Hall and designed with colorful cartoon-like sets by Gerald Scarfe that had been presented four times including its 1993 debut.

The Magic Flute is still on the agenda — it opens Saturday night in the first of seven performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, running through Dec. 15 — but not with the Hall/Scarfe production. Instead, LAO President and Chief Executive Officer Christopher Koelsch journeyed to Berlin and fell in love with a wacky production from Komische Oper Berlin that mixes, as the company says, Mozart, Buster Keaton and Nosferatu.” In a published interview, LAO Music Director James Conlon, who will conduct the local performances, called the concept “an extraordinary idea and an extraordinary execution of that idea. For L.A., the birthplace of movies, it’s a perfect fit.”

Created by the British theater group “1927” — led by director Suzanne Andrade and filmmaker Paul Barritt — in collaboration with Australian Barrie Kosky, artistic director of the Komische Oper in Berlin, the production will be making its U.S. debut. This will also mark Kosky’s American debut as an opera director.

The silent-film images come during the opera’s “singspiel” portions that are a unique part of The Magic Flute. Instead of the “song-speech,” the production projects minimalist texts above the Buster Keaton-style images. A review in “Bachtrtack” (a classical music Web site) states, “It might seem a gimmick, or an acknowledgement of the oft-stated opinion that Schikaneder’s spoken dialogue is long-winded and tiring, but it’s actually only the beginning. The technologically audacious, faux-naïve style of 1920s cinema proves an inspired lens (so to speak) for this work’s quirky tone.”

Kosky says, “The rhythm of the music and the text has an enormous influence on the animation. As we worked together on The Magic Flute, the timing always came from the music, even — especially — in the dialogues, which we condensed and transformed into silent film intertitles with piano accompaniment. It’s a silent film by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, so to speak!” Beyond the black-and-white aspects, the production also includes a number of colorful images, including flying pink elephants.

Conlon, who conducted the orchestra in the 2006 film version of The Magic Flute directed by Kenneth Branagh, will lead a cast that includes two Americans: soprano Janai Brugger, a LAO alumna, who will appear as Pamina, and tenor Lawrence Brownlee in his LAO debut as Tamino. Also making company debuts will be soprano Erika Miklósa as The Queen of the Night, bass Evan Boyer as Sarastro, and baritone Rodion Pogossov as Papageno.

Hemidemisemiquavers:
• The Hall/Scarfe production of The Magic Flute (which LAO owns) hasn’t been abandoned, said Koelsch when this new production was announced. It will be retained for possible future use.
• Strong advance ticket sales encouraged the company to add the Dec. 8 presentation to the original slate of six presentations.
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(c) Copyright 2013, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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