Mozart’s Magic Flute, a New Production at the San Francisco Opera, designed by Jun Kaneko, by David Dunn Bauer

The Magic Flute: Heidi Stober (Pamina) and Alek Shrader (Tamino). Photo by Cory Weaver.

San Francsico Opera
The Magic Flute
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, music
Emanuel Schikaneder, libretto
(Sung and spoken in English)

Pamina – Heidi Stober
Tamino – Alek Shrader
Tamino – Nathaniel Peake – July 6, 8

Papageno – Nathan Gunn
The Queen of the Night – Albina Shagimuratova *
Sarastro – Kristinn Sigmundsson
First Lady – Melody Moore
Second Lady – Lauren Mcneese
Third Lady – Renée Tatum
Papagena – Nadine Sierra
Monostatos – Greg Fedderly
The Speaker – David Pittsinger
First Spirit – Etienne Valdez
Second Spirit – Joshua Reinier
Third Spirit – John Walsh
First Armored Man – Beau Gibson
Second Armored Man – Jordan Bisch

Conductor – Rory Macdonald
Director – Harry Silverstein
Production Designer – Jun Kaneko
Lighting Designer – Paul Pyant
Chorus Director – Ian Robertson
Choreographer – Lawrence Pech

A new Magic Flute production premiered in San Francisco on June 13. With a solid musical basis and a fairly shipshape theatrical pacing, the strongest impressions were made by designer/artist Jun Kaneko and soprano Albina Shagimuratova as the Queen of the Night, both making their SFO debuts.

Always accurate in intonation, Shagimuratova dazzled in her first aria and unleashed an Elettra-like fury in her second, earning the only true “aria ovation” of the night. The applause after Der Hölle Rache lasted long enough that she could have re-entered for a diva bow and an encore had she been so inclined. Vocally she so dominated the evening, I was disappointed she didn’t.

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!