Review: THE MAGIC FLUTE at Des Moines Metro Opera

I love seeing in the arts when a company takes a classic work and reimagines it for a modern audience. This often allows for more imaginative and innovative production that brings a brand new audience to your company. As they begin their 50th Season, Des Moines Metro Opera brings Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "The Magic Flute" to the Civic Center Stage with Des Moines Performing Arts. If this show is any indication of what's to come from the 50th Season for Des Moines Metro Opera, then audiences are in for a not to be missed treat this summer.

If you are unfamiliar with "The Magic Flute," it tells the story of Tamino, a man being chased by a monstrous serpent. He is saved by three women who serve The Queen of the Night. When Tamino meets the Queen, she tells him of her daughter Pamina's kidnapping. She sends him on a quest to rescue Pamina, along with Papageno, who he initially thought was his rescuer. As they go on this quest, they are each provided with an instrument to help them, Tamino with a magic flute and Papageno with bells. Are they able to rescue Pamina? That you will need to see the production to find out.

One of the risks I appreciate that this production took was letting the lyrics and the opera's story be the star. It didn't rely on overly ornate costumes or an elaborate set to tell the story, and it allowed the script to do the job it's supposed to do in telling us the story. Doing this allowed for even more imaginative sets and costumes by Esther Bialas. The spectacle that people enjoy from seeing opera is seen in the wild but dark animations seen throughout the opera, designed by Paul Barritt. The animations are used in inventive ways throughout the performance, surprising the audience.

Besides the beautiful production seen, one of the evening's thrills was getting to hear the musicians from the Des Moines Symphony, under the direction of conductor Christopher Allen, play the beautiful orchestrations through the opera. Sitting in the audience, you couldn't help but bask in the beautiful music played through the overture. It built the anticipation of seeing a large live production getting ready to unfold on stage.

What I found most intriguing about this production is how it questions what is needed for a performance from an actor. Maybe this comes from spending part of the pandemic doing theatre masked, where all you have from the face is the eyes. This production presents two very different ideas for this.

The first is as an actor, what if you only have your voice. When we first hear Christian Zaremba as Speaker of the Temple, we only hear his voice, and everything else is done through the animation on the screen. Through his performance as the Speaker, there was never a doubt of the emotion he was emoting during those songs. We get to see him on stage later as Sarastro, which he does an equally fantastic job with.

The second comes when we get an equally exciting performance from Audrey Luna as Queen of the Night. While we see her performance onstage, her character is also limited in how she can emote. For her performance, she gets to use her voice and facial expressions, and that is it, and the animations do the rest.

While both actors provide outstanding performances that aren't what we would typically see on stage, the show also has three terrific leading actors who get to have some fun with the animations but are seen fully onstage throughout the performance. Leading the cast in the role of Tamino is Aaron Blake. His beautiful tenor voice drew the audience in as he sees and falls in love with Pamina. Pamina, played by Raven McMillion and Andrew Wilkowske as Papageno, does most of the physical action on stage, tied to what is happening in the animation. The scene where they both are escaping across the rooftops together was one of the highlights of the evening.

If "The Magic Flute" is any indication of what is to come the imagination and innovation to come this summer, then Des Moines Metro Opera's 50th Season is one that you won't want to miss. The Season consists of a variety of classic productions such as "Porgy and Bess" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as well as the Iowa Premiere of "American Apollo" in partnership with Pyramid Theatre; and the world premiere of "A Thousand Acres." To find out more about their upcoming Season https://desmoinesmetroopera.org/.

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