S.F. Opera's 'Magic Flute' Full of Intelligence, Humor

By CAROLINE CRAWFORD
Bay City News Service

Dozens of children packed the opera house last Sunday afternoon for a performance of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.”

It is a spectacular show full of intelligence and humor. Jun Kaneko’s sets are all about spectacle: geometric shapes dance on a polka-dotted backdrop, Pamino and Pamina produce a flock of children turned out as bright satin eggs, and the usual two-headed dragon sports a toothy smile as he pretends to gobble up the hero in the first act.

Lawrence Foster’s conducting drew a vibrant and detailed performance from the opera orchestra, and Ian Robertson’s chorus shone at their antic best.

This production, premiered here in 2012, has had an unusual number of cast changes. Nadine Sierra, the original Pamina, took over the title role of “Lucia di Lammermoor” at the eleventh hour, every soprano’s dream, and will return to “The Magic Flute” in later performances.

Sarah Shafer as her replacement couldn’t have been more convincing as Mozart’s heroine, an engaged performance sung with silvery lyric lines.

Not to mention the Queen of the Night, the wicked mother everyone loves to loathe, rapturously sung Sunday by Albina Shagimuratova’s cover Kathryn Bowden, a recent Merola Opera Program singer who delivered the fearsome arias with absolute security and striking colors.

Both won bravas from the full-house audience. Paul Appleby in his company debut had some trouble initially reigning in his supple tenor, but he has an impressive range and lyric sound, and his Pamino showed courage and love and partnered Pamina well vocally in the long run.

One of the reasons this “Flute” works so well is that David Gockley’s English translation, aided by supertitles, brings to light some of the work’s complicated relationships.

There is no doubt about the slave Monostatos’ lecherous intentions with regard to Pamina, for example, and the wordplay between Papageno and Papagena as they woo is marvelous.

Together with Harry Silverstein’s deft direction, the opera’s plots, including the examination and fostering of Freemasonry, are better sorted out than in most productions.

The singing was universally solid: Adler Fellow Efrain Solis was a golden-toned, good-hearted Papageno. Solis cut a lively and capering figure onstage, and Papagena was vivaciously sung and acted by Maria Valdes.

Elsewhere in the cast, bass-baritone Alfred Reiter was an impressively grave Sarastro and Greg Fedderly was super oily and villainous as Monostatos.

The Three Ladies suffered a bit from hyper direction but did their vocal bits with high spirits, and the three boys sang gloriously, making their entrance high above the stage, wrapped like finger puppets.

“The Magic Flute” will have several more performances through Nov. 20 at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco.

(Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Opera)