The Magic Flute Receives US Premiere at Lincoln Center Fest

Lincoln Center Festival will present the U.S. Premiere of Peter Brook's A Magic Flute, an adaptation of the classic Mozart opera, for sixteen performances at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater. This intimate 90-minute, fully-staged production of the familiar and beloved work, created at Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Brook's base since 1974, allows Mozart's beautiful score to be delicately realized by a talented ensemble featuring a pianist, two actors, and an alternating cast of seven singers. Brook's acclaimed production is the 85-year-old director's first since handing over the reins to the company this January. A Magic Flute was recently awarded France's esteemed Molière Award for best musical theater.

Discussing his opera, Brook said, "This will be a Magic Flute far from the expected. The vast panoply of scenic effects, the heavy and solemn symbolism are all put aside. In their place, audiences will find an ever young Mozart surrounded by an equally young and talented cast of singers and musicians ready, like the composer, to improvise, to transpose, to explore new colors, to juggle with forms. We propose a light, effervescent Flute, where an intimacy with the performers will allow the tenderness and the depth of the score to appear. This Flute takes its place in the Bouffes du Nord's approach to opera, as in La Tragédie de Carmen and Impressions de Pelléas."

Like his ground-breaking La Tragédie de Carmen (which was performed in New York at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in 1983) and Pelléas, Brook's free interpretation of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute is a poetic invocation; its spare and subtle staging sheds a new, vibrating light on Mozart's masterpiece. In this distinctive adaptation, Brook has pared down the characters to the Queen of the Night, Sarastro, Monostatos, Tamino, Papageno, Papagena, and Pamina.

Peter Brook, is one of the most important theater artists of the 20th century. He was born in London in 1925, and directed his first play there in 1943. He has directed more than 70 productions in London, Paris, and New York. He was a co-director of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1962 to 1970. His work with the RSC, spanning more than 20 years, includes Love's Labour's Lost (1946), Measure for Measure (1950), Titus Andronicus (1955), King Lear (1962), Marat/Sade (1964), US (1966), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1970), and Antony and Cleopatra (1978). In 1971, Brook founded the International Centre for Theatre Research in Paris (subsequently renamed International Center for Theatre Creations (C.I.C.T)) and, in 1974, opened Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord there as the permanent base for his innovative approach to performance. During his 36-year tenure there he has overseen and directed a range of ground-breaking, awarding-winning productions including Timon of Athens, The Ik, Ubu aux Bouffes, Conference of the Birds, L'O's, The Cherry Orchard, The Mahabharata, Woza Albert!, The Tempest, The Man Who, Qui est là?, Ô! les Beaux Jours, Je suis un Phénomène, Le Costume, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Far Away, La Mort de Krishna, Ta Main dans la Mienne, Tierno Bokar, Sizwe Banzi est mort, and Fragments. The epic nine hour The Mahabharata was a sensation when it was performed to sold-out houses in New York in 1987. Brook's last major theater production in New York was Tierno Bokar given its U.S. premiere during a month-long residency at Columbia University in 2005.

Brook's singular work in opera has spanned more than 60 years, since his time as head of productions at the Royal Opera House in 1947. He has directed both acclaimed and controversial productions at Covent Garden, including La Bohème, Boris Godunov, The Olympians, Salomé, and Le Nozze de Figaro; Faust and Eugene Onegin at the Metropolitan Opera House; La Tragédie de Carmen and Impressions of Pelléas at the Théâtre Bouffes du Nord (Paris), with Carmen also at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center; and Don Giovanni for Aix en Provence Festival. His film directorial credits include: Lord of the Flies, Marat/Sade, King Lear, Moderato Cantabile, Tell me lies, The Mahabharata and Meetings with Remarkable Men. Brook has written The Empty Space, The Shifting Point and Threads of Time.

Co-produced by C.I.C.T/Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord; Lincoln Center Festival; Barbican, London; Festival d'Automne à Paris; Attiki Cultural Society, Athens; Musikfest, Bremen; Théâtre de Caen; MC2, Grenoble; Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg; Piccolo Teatro di Milano-Teatro d'Europa.

Executive Producer: C.I.C.T/Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord

Made possible in part by generous support from Jennie and Richard DeScherer and The Grand Marnier Foundation.

A Magic Flute (U.S. Premiere)
Directed by Peter Brook
Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Freely adapted by Peter Brook, Franck Krawczyk, and Marie-Hélène Estienne
Lighting Design by Philippe Vialatte
Costumes by Hélène Patarot with the help of Oria Puppo
Pianists: Franck Krawczyk and Matan Porat

Singers: (alternating casts): Dima Bawab, Malia Bendi-Merad, Leila Benhamza, Luc Bertin-Hugault, Patrick Bolleire, Jean-Christophe Born, Raphaël Brémard, Thomas Dolié, Antonio Figueroa, Virgile Frannais, Betsabée Haas, Agnieszka Slawinska, Adrian Strooper, Jeanne Zaepffel
Actors: William Nadylam, Abdou Ouologuem

July 5*, 6-10, 12-17 at 8 p.m.; July 9, 10, 16, 17 at 2 p.m.
*Preview performance

Performed in German and French with English supertitles;
16 performances; running time (approx.): One hour, 30 minutes

Gerald W. Lynch Theater, John Jay College, Amsterdam Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets
Tickets: $45, 65, 85

To post a comment, you must register and login.