Organization

Festival d'Aix en Provence

Conductor

Nathalie Stutzmann

Stage director

Simon McBurney

Choreographer

Set designer

Michael Levine

Costume designer

Nicky Gillibrand

Lighting designer

Jean Kalman

Video designer

Finn Ross

Sound designer

Gareth Fry

Singer

Soprano

Erin Morley

Pamina

Kathryn Lewek

The Queen of the Night

Tenor

Lawrence Brownlee

Tamino

Baritone

Thomas Oliemans

Papageno

Bass

Stephen Milling

Sarastro

Brenton Ryan

Monostastos

Ashley Emerson

Papagena

Richard Bernstein

First priest

Errin Duane Brooks

Second priest

First armored man

Second armored man

Alexandria Shiner

First lady

Olivia Vote

Second lady

Contralto

Tamara Mumford

Third lady

Gareth Morrell

Megan Esther Grey

Harold Wilson

Speaker

De Nationale Opera

English National Opera

The Metropolitan Opera

Others

Metropolitan Opera Choir

Orchestra

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

German

Die Zauberflöte -  (The Magic Flute)

New York City

United States

Metropolitan Opera House

Die Zauberflöte Mozart

Public

Private

The Magic Flute

English

Spanish

Approved

Die Zauberflote at the Metropolitan Opera

One of opera’s most beloved works receives its first new Met staging in 19 years—a daring vision by renowned English director Simon McBurney that The Wall Street Journal declared “the best production I’ve ever witnessed of Mozart’s opera.” Nathalie Stutzmann conducts the Met Orchestra, with the pit raised to make the musicians visible to the audience and allow interaction with the cast. In his Met-debut staging, McBurney lets loose a volley of theatrical flourishes, incorporating projections, sound effects, and acrobatics to match the spectacle and drama of Mozart’s fable. The brilliant cast includes soprano Erin Morley as Pamina, tenor Lawrence Brownlee as Tamino, baritone Thomas Oliemans in his Met debut as Papageno, soprano Kathryn Lewek as the Queen of the Night, and bass Stephen Milling as Sarastro.

World premiere: Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden, Vienna, 1791. Die Zauberflöte—a sublime fairy tale that moves freely between earthy comedy and noble mysticism—was written for a theater located just outside Vienna with the clear intention of appealing to audiences from all walks of life. The story is told in a singspiel (“song-play”) format characterized by separate musical numbers connected by dialogue and stage activity, an excellent structure for navigating the diverse moods, ranging from solemn to lighthearted, of the story and score. The composer and the librettist were both Freemasons—the fraternal order whose membership is held together by shared moral and metaphysical ideals—and Masonic imagery is used throughout the work. The story, however, is as universal as any fairy tale.

Creators
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91) was the son of a Salzburg court musician who exhibited him as a musical prodigy throughout Europe. His achievements in opera, in terms of beauty, vocal challenge, and dramatic insight, remain unsurpassed. He died three months after the premiere of Die Zauberflöte, his last produced work for the stage. The remarkable Emanuel Schikaneder (1751–1812) was an actor, singer, theater manager, a friend of Mozart who wrote the opera’s libretto, staged the work, and sang the role of Papageno in the initial run.

Setting
The libretto specifies Egypt as the location of the action. Egypt was traditionally regarded as the legendary birthplace of the Masonic fraternity, whose symbols and rituals populate this opera. Some productions include Egyptian motifs as an exotic nod to this idea, but many more opt for a more generalized mythic ambience to convey the otherworldliness that the score and overall tone of the work call for.

Music
Die Zauberflöte was written with an eye toward a popular audience, but the varied tone of the work requires singers who can specialize in several different musical genres. The comic and earthy are represented by the baritone, Papageno, while true love in its noblest forms is conveyed by the tenor, Tamino, and the soprano, Pamina. The bass, Sarastro, expresses the solemn and the transcendental. The use of the chorus is spare but hauntingly beautiful, and fireworks are provided by the coloratura Queen of the Night

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble

Co-Producer