Imagine being a young singer with operatic ambitions, ready to make the most of an undergraduate or graduate opera program to provide a springboard into the professional world, when rather suddenly … everything comes to a career-pausing, grinding halt. That was the predicament of University of Tennessee Opera Theatre students when the Covid-19 pandemic made live performances impossible beginning in March, 2020. Thankfully, though, for both performers and opera audiences, live performances have now returned to the theatre stage a year and a half later. This past weekend, UTOT made their return with a production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte), a work written as a singspiel with a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder.
The Magic Flute seems like the perfect choice for UTOT under the circumstances. It has a number of juicy roles—both comic and dramatic—for excellent singer/actors, as well as attractive smaller roles and chorus opportunities. Despite its allegorical themes of enlightenment versus ignorance, good versus evil, and its heavy dose of symbolism woven into its fabric, the work is adaptable and editable to suit performance requirements. Admittedly, the plot features an often bewildering concoction of spoken dialogue, arias, and bawdy comedy, as well as an expectation and need for visual effects. But, it also has one important asset, the addictively tuneful and gorgeously satisfying music of Mozart.
In a similar fashion to their last UTOT The Magic Flute production in 2015, stage director James Marvel and music director/conductor Kevin Class chose wisely in making music and dialogue cuts that tightened the plot, trimmed the running time, and added comic interest. Again, Marvel chose a simple set of platforms and steps, but with the addition of panels that provided a projection surface for DJ Pike’s colorfully supportive and intriguing video visuals. John Horner’s crisp lighting worked well with the projections and Glenn Avery Breed’s costumes supported the light vs. dark motif of the underlying theme.
As per the UTOT custom, this production was mostly double-cast over the four performances, giving performance opportunities to as many singers as possible. However, both casts appeared remarkably balanced in levels of comic delivery, dramatic range, stage presence, and overall vocal quality.
Singing the lead tenor role of Tamino was Adriel Baralt Jimenez and Tim Pope. As well as bearing something of a physical resemblance with each other, both singers had impressively attractive voices, charming demeanor, clean German diction, and a strong dramatic heroic presence. Jimenez’ lyrical tenor matched his passionate portrayal. Pope brought a sympathetic romantic character supported by a remarkable vocal power across his extended vocal range.
Singing opposite Jimenez in the role of the princess Pamina was Sabreena Cherrington, while Pope was matched with Mikeila McQueston. Both sopranos brought impressive lyrical vocal strength to a fairytale-like princess portrayal. Cherrington’s dramatic Pamina was strong and resolute. McQueston’s princess was a bit more submissive to the forces of fate, yet hinting at a subtle strength of purpose.
Costumed in an outfit of feathers in the greenish/yellow vein was the bird-catcher Papageno, a comic role written for Mozart’s librettist/producer Emanuel Schikaneder, taken here by Jacob Lay, Joel Brown, and James Hooper Stevens.
[Note: Reviewer attended the performances of Friday evening and Sunday evening.]
Lay and Stevens offered slightly different comic approaches to Papageno within the structure of Marvel’s spirited staging for the character, but both are singers with strong comic abilities built around physicality and strong vocal projection. Lay’s bass-baritone had an attractive silkiness; Stevens baritone was gorgeously rich throughout his range.
The role of the Queen of the Night is rather notorious as one of opera’s most problematic roles to cast and to perform. The Act II aria “Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen” features a range of two octaves extending to a high F and requires the singer to cover a gamut of emotions including angry rage. Luckily, UTOT had two sopranos that could handle the range and vivid, demanding coloratura: Hannah Alfaro and Madison Mackey. Costumed in a stunning midnight purple-blue gown with a headdress to match, both singers had mastered the dramatic contrast between the strange lament in Act I to the raw anger of the Act II aria. Alfaro’s vocal accuracy in that aria was truly impressive. In the role of Papagena, Papageno’s romantic mate-to-be, was Abigail Schlictmann, who took director Marvel’s comic touches right to edge of Vaudeville wackiness.
In the role of Sarastro in all four performances was bass Will Ryan. Ryan’s velvety, rich voice was the perfect underpinning for a characterization that was the epitome of restrained dignity. The role of Monostatos was sung by Shaquille St. John.
And then, there is the operatic comic genius that is Kevin Burdette. The bass, originally from Knoxville and currently on the Metropolitan Opera roster in Boris Godunov and a frequent performer at Santa Fe Opera and other opera houses around the U.S., has recently joined the voice faculty of the UT School of Music. I can assume it didn’t take much arm twisting to get him into the role of the Temple Spokesman which he and Marvel expanded and adapted into a vehicle of comic relief that oozed with inside jokes. This made good use of Burdette’s amazing talent for physical comedy and innate sense of timing. No doubt, Herr Mozart would have approved.
“Threes” play an important part of Mozart and Schikaneder’s Masonic references right from the opening three chords in the overture. There are the three “Ladies”, the three “Spirits”, as well as the three flats of E-flat Major that flows through the score. Singing the three Ladies were Kylie Humber, Christine Alfano, and Gianna Grigalonis in one cast—Karen Wemhoener, Alfano, and Grace Decious in the other. The punked-out three Spirits were Claudia DellaSantina, Logan Williams, Hannah Cipriana Casman, Teyah Young, Ruth Ann Bendy, and Faith Nevarez. The Armored Men were Jackson Guthrie, and Joel Brown and James Hooper Stevens on alternate evenings.
Led by conductor Kevin Class, the UT Symphony Orchestra (or at least half of it, the other half on Chamber Orchestra duty) was in the pit, demonstrating solid balance, playing stamina, and sounding great.
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