Mozart ‘Magic’ in March Opera Preview

Mozart’s “Magic Flute,” with performances at the Tucson Music Hall March 1 and 2, is, after all, a fantasy, so it doesn’t pay to get too bookish about it. Also, it has been with us for more than 200 years, so it is fair to assume that just about everything analytical has already been written.

The opera opened to great initial success in Vienna in 1791 with the composer himself conducting. Mozart scholar Maynard Solomon called it “a great success, the opera drawing immense crowds and reaching hundreds of performances during the 1790s.”

As with all of Mozart, it is the music that predominates, not the plot.

Prince Tamino, after an enchanted sleep, falls in love with a picture of Pamina, daughter of the Queen of the Night. He must save her from a demon with the help of a magic flute. Papageno, a somewhat dull bird catcher whose magic bells do not climb quite to the top of the scale, accompanies the prince. Papageno does manage to free Pamina, the news of which elicits more of Tamino’s tootling.

Tamino is put through a series of trials protected by the flute. Papageno also gains his love using the magic bells. Only after the Queen of the Night performs her stunningly beautiful and famous aria is she finished off by a blinding flash of light which destroys the night.

Scott Ramsay and Philippe Castagner will alternate in the role of Tamino.

Ramsay’s repertoire runs from Baroque to bel canto to 20th century opera. He has sung Edgardo in “Lucia” at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and in a new “Lucia” in Dublin as well as in New Orleans and Connecticut. He is singing Pong in “Turandot” in Chicago this season along with “Semele” in Boston.

Castagner made his debuts last season both with the New York Philharmonic under Lorin Maezel and at the New York City Opera. He has sung Tamino in Vancouver recently.

The role of Papageno will be shared by Joshua Hopkins and Corey McKern.

Last season, Hopkins sang “Pagliacci” at Opera Carolina and “Don Giovanni” in Montr/al. He appeared as Papageno both in Calgary and Santa Fe last year. He debuted at Carnegie Hall in 2004, and he was a prize winner in the 2005 Pl�cido Domingo Operalia Competition in Madrid.

McKern sang Marcello in “La boh�me” in Santa Fe last summer. His most recent Papageno was in Nevada Opera.

Pamina will be sung by the upcoming young soprano Hanan Alattar, who has appeared in Spoletto, Italy as well as Ravinia in Chicago, and by Nathalie Paulin.

Paulin has sung Pell/as in Montr/al and also appeared with the Qu/bec and Calgary opera companies.

Heather Buck returns to the Arizona Opera stage as Queen of the Night after a striking performance in “Semele” in 2005-2006. She sang Queen of the Night with Calgary Opera that same season and reprised the role in Santa Fe in the summer of 2006, her debut there. She has been praised by the New York Times as “singing beautifully and looking like a million dollars.” Last summer she debuted with Central City Opera and has appeared extensively in Europe.

Joel Revzen, general and artistic director of Arizona Opera, will conduct.

“Magic Flute” is a light-hearted part of this year’s opera season, but we might keep in mind Thomas Mann’s opinions expressed in his writing on Doctor Faustus.

“It seems to me,” Mann wrote,” that despite the logical, moral rigor music may appear to display, it belongs to the world of spirits for whose absolute reliability in matters of human reason and dignity I would not exactly want to put my hand in the fire.”

Go hear “Magic Flute” and delight in its fantastic world of spirits and abstruse allegories. Performances at the Tucson Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave., will be sung in English with English subtitles.

Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 1 performance and the 2 p.m. matinee Sunday, March 2 are available from AZ Opera, (520) 293-4336 or from Ticket Master.

Information about opera previews in Green Valley and bus transportation to the Sunday matinee can be obtained from rayw7sy@att.net or (520) 625-3361.

The company’s Web site is www.azopera.com.

donald.behnke@yahoo.com