LOS ANGELES – Mozart’s final opera, “The Magic Flute,” was composed for his friend, Emanuel Schikaneder, who managed a cabaret in Vienna. As such, it is an outlier, his only opera with a German libretto composed in the Singspiel style accommodating various levels of vocal talent (Schikaneder himself sang the role of Papageno). Upon its premier it was an instant success, its popularity spreading far beyond its intended audience of commoners.
The opera’s populist appeal made it an easy fit for silent cinema, one of the many influences director Suzanne Andrade and animator Paul Barritt drew on for their production of “The Magic Flute,” a mixed-media performance running November 23 through December 15 at L.A. Opera.
“We really wanted to make our Papageno a Buster Keaton,” Andrade told ARTINFO. “We wanted a deadpan clown. Everything goes wrong all the time, even when he gets his Papagena.” Also fitting the silent-era motif is the Louise Brooks-inspired black bob Pamina wears, matching Andrade’s own hairstyle.
Andrade’s look fits in with her work as director, writer, and star of 1927, the London theater company she co-founded with Barritt. Their “Magic Flute” and other two productions, “The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” and “The Animals and Children Took the Streets,” employ the same combination of Weimar Republic cabaret and Barritt’s bold, retro animation projected on a white wall where performers enter and exit through panels.
With only two modest-sized shows to their credit, 1927 was handpicked by Komische Oper Berlin director Barrie Kosky, who saw “The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” and connected Weimar cabaret-style with “The Magic Flute”’s Singspiel structure.
Andrade and Barritt were blindsided by his offer to produce and co-direct the opera. Neither were opera fans, nor were they familiar with the “The Magic Flute,” a condition Andrade feels actually worked to their benefit. Unbridled by reverence, they were able to get down to the basics of music, character, and theme.
“It’s about finding a balance,” said Barritt. “We have a very intense process in which we think through the visuals, the blocking and everything, and what it means for the character.”
Like any stage performer, singers are accustomed to hitting their marks, but when they’re interacting with projected images, precision becomes even more critical. In “The Magic Flute,” they are chased by giant pendulums, frolic among flowers, birds, and bumblebees, and are tormented by an arachnid Queen of the Night.
“We kept the movement as simple as possible,” Andrade said. “There’s a tendency for all performers, when they interact with animation, to turn in toward the wall so the audience loses them. But all the other interaction they seemed to have picked up quite quick.”
The initial run in Berlin late last year was a popular and critical success, prompting L.A. Opera music director James Conlon and president ChristopherKoelsch to travel to Germany, determined to bring the production to the birthplace of cinema.
For Barritt, who hand drew the animation over 18 months, the Berlin premier was a thrill, but mostly he was just relieved to reach the finish line. Revisiting the show in Los Angeles with a year’s perspective can be hazardous, lest all its shortcomings jump to the fore. Luckily for Barritt, he suffered no such dilemma, noting, “You shelve a piece of work and then you come back to it a year or so later you think, ‘Well, we did a pretty good job on that.’”
