San Francisco Opera Presents Mozart's The Magic Flute May 30–June 30, 2024
Scenes from Mozart's The Magic Flute (photos: Cory Weaver/Lyric Opera of Chicago, Cory Weaver/LA Opera); Original directors Barrie Kosky (photo: Jan Windszus) and Suzanne Andrade
Production by Barrie Kosky and Suzanne Andrade reimagines fairy-tale opera through aesthetics of silent film, early animation and 1920s cabaret
Eun Sun Kim; Amitai Pati; Christina Gansch; Kwangchul Youn; Lauri Vasar; Anna Simińska
Eun Sun Kim conducts international cast featuring Amitai Pati, Christina Gansch, Kwangchul Youn, Lauri Vasar and Anna Simińska
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (April 24, 2024) — San Francisco Opera’s Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim opens the Company’s 2024 Summer Season on May 30 leading Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s THE MAGIC FLUTE (DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE). Presented in the energetic and visually stunning production by Barrie Kosky and Suzanne Andrade, this staging draws inspiration from the art of silent film, early Hollywood animation and 1920s Berlin cabaret. Company Chorus Director John Keene prepares the artists of the San Francisco Opera Chorus.
The Magic Flute is one of the last operas Mozart completed before his death in 1791 at age 35, and it is one of his most adored works. The libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder, who was director of the theater outside Vienna where the opera had its first performances and created the role of the bird catcher, Papageno, follows a prince’s quest for love and wisdom. Mozart created arias and ensembles for this work that are noble, heartwarming and comedic. A few of the most popular melodies in the operatic repertoire are found in his score for The Magic Flute, including the Queen of the Night’s two stratospheric arias and the opera’s famous overture.
Kosky and Andrade’s award-winning production, which originated at Berlin’s Komische Opera, has made stops around Europe, Asia, the Middle East, North and South America and now comes to San Francisco for the first time. With fast-paced animation, the use of intertitles instead of spoken dialogue and allusions to silent film-era icons like actress Louise Brooks and the vampire from F.W. Murnau’s 1922 classic, Nosferatu, this visionary staging is, according to the Los Angeles Times, “a wonderful show … great for opera lovers, newbies and the whole family; great for Mozart; great for reminding us of the wonders of silent cinema.” Esther Bialas is the production designer and Paul Barritt designed the animation. The opera is staged by revival director Tobias Ribitzki.
Music Director Eun Sun Kim adds Mozart’s sparkling, humanistic masterwork to her podium duties this season which have included works by Richard Wagner, Giuseppe Verdi and concerts. Kim, who has conducted The Magic Flute with multiple European companies and with Washington National Opera, leads the Company’s first presentation of the opera in nearly a decade. Kim will return to Mozart in June 2025 with Idomeneo, one of the composer’s earliest operas, after leading Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony this fall.
New Zealand-Samoan tenor Amitai Pati is Tamino, the prince who must pass several trials to be united with Pamina. Pati was Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni for San Francisco Opera in 2022 and has performed Ferrando in Mozart’s Così fan tutte at Tanglewood, Tamino in Montpellier and leading roles in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette and Verdi’s La Traviata in Europe during recent seasons. He is a former San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow and member of the award-winning, multi-platinum New Zealand vocal group Sol3 Mio with his brother Pene Pati and cousin Moses Mackay.
Austrian soprano Christina Gansch, a standout in the Company’s 2019 presentation of Handel’s Orlando and in her return as Zerlina in Don Giovanni, takes on the role of Pamina. An experienced Mozartian, Gansch has appeared as Pamina, Zerlina and Servilia in the composer’s late work La Clemenza di Tito with London’s Royal Opera, Covent Garden and in Salzburg earlier this year as Servilia.
The international cast features a trio of house debuts in leading roles. Estonian bass-baritone Lauri Vasar joins the Company as Papageno, the bird catcher who accompanies Tamino on his quest. South Korean bass Kwangchul Youn, a distinguished interpreter of Richard Wagner’s music dramas, is Sarastro, the leader of a brotherhood that prizes wisdom above all. Polish soprano Anna Simińska is the Queen of the Night who enlists Tamino to rescue her daughter and delivers two of opera’s most spectacular arias.
Former Adler Fellow tenor Zhengyi Bai is Monostatos and the three ladies are performed by current Adler soprano Olivia Smith along with mezzo-sopranos Ashley Dixon, a former Adler, and Maire Therese Carmack, in her Company debut. Current Adlers Arianna Rodriguez (Papagena), Jongwon Han (the Speaker), Thomas Kinch and James McCarthy (the Armored Men) and three boy sopranos Niko Min, Solah Malik and Jacob Rainow (the three spirits) complete the cast.
The Wednesday, June 26 performance of The Magic Flute marks the Company’s annual Pride Night at the Opera celebration and anticipates Pride weekend in San Francisco, which culminates in the Pride Parade on Sunday, June 30. For more information, visit sfopera.com/pride.
Sung in German with English supertitles, the nine performances of The Magic Flute are scheduled for May 30 (7:30 p.m.); June 2 (2 p.m.), 4 (7:30 p.m.), 8 (7:30 p.m.), 14 (7:30 p.m.), 20 (7:30 p.m.), 22 (7:30 p.m.), 26 (7:30 p.m.), 30 (2 p.m.), 2024.
PRE-OPERA TALKS & SAN FRANCISCO OPERA GUILD PREVIEWS
Professor of Music and program chair at Foothill College Robert Hartwell will present a Pre-Opera Talk prior to each performance inside the theater. Beginning 55 minutes prior to curtain, the 25-minute Pre-Opera Talks are open to ticket holders for the corresponding performance.
On May 23, San Francisco Opera Guild presents Opera Previews on The Magic Flute by soprano and musicologist Rebecca Plack online at 6 p.m. or in person in San Rafael (Marin Chapter) at 2 p.m. Each 90-minute lecture provides in-depth insights into the opera’s history, composer, story and music. For more information, visit sfopera.com/operapreviews.
POST-PERFORMANCE TALKBACK WITH EUN SUN KIM: Sunday, June 2
Eun Sun Kim in the pit and at a post-performance talkback. Photos: Stefan Cohen
Following the Sunday, June 2 matinee of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, San Francisco Opera Music Director Eun Sun Kim will participate in a post-performance talkback. Audience members are invited to gather after the performance for a live Q&A with the conductor. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Kim discuss Mozart and The Magic Flute.
*For the complete press release, including full casting and calendar open the PDF version above.