Opera Warhorses

Part I of this interview may be found at: Heartland Heartthrob: An Interview with Nathan Gunn, Part I.

[Below: Nathan Gunn; edited image, based on a photograph from www.texasperformingarts.com.]

Wm: One of your colleagues in one of my interviews suggested that your physical exercise regimen and your physical appearance have put pressure on other operatic males to try to stay buff. We are now in a time when the first questions asked after Bizet’s “Pearl Fishers” is announced for an opera company’s season is Who will play Nadir and Zurga, and what will their costumes be?

[Below: Nadir (Eric Cutler, left) and Zurga (Nathan Gunn) recall the image of the priestess Leila in the temple; edited image, based on a photograph, courtesy of the Lyric Opera, Chicago.]

NG: In 1997, Francesca Zambello hired William Burden and myself as Pylade and Orest for Gluck’s “Iphigenie en Tauride”. About six months before the production, she told us that we were going to get totally wet onstage and would be barechested. She said we should start going to the gym. I do think that was the beginning of all of this emphasis on my physique.

Wm: Who would have imagined that a Gluck opera would have become a smash hit and started a new trend in costuming male opera performers?

NG: It surprised me is that Burden and I got such an audience response. Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with my looking like the character I’m supposed to be playing. I will go all sorts of directions in preparing for a role, although it’s hard for me to gain a lot of weight.

Wm: I suspect that you at the middle of all of this must be enjoying the notoriety. Does your wife tease you about a fanbase that likes to see you barechested?

NG: The only time that Julie gets annoyed is at concerts. Some audience members will say “we are waiting for Nathan to sing the second half of the program shirtless”. She thinks that is rude. I personally don’t care. I understand where people are coming from.

Wm: But what are you to make of a time when the Los Angeles Opera casts you as Papageno in Mozart’s “Magic Flute”, and the city’s major newspaper’s reviewer objected to your appearing in Gerry Scarfe’s enchanting costume, because its feathers covered your chest?

[Below: Papageno (Nathan Gunn, left) sings a duet with Tamino (Matthew Polenzani) in Gerald Scarfe's production of Mozart's "The Magic Flute"; edited image, based on a Robert Millard photograph, courtesy of the Los Angeles Opera.]

NG: Actually, Scarfe’s Papageno costume was uncomfortably hot, and it required a lot of my time to be spent in makeup.

As for reviews, even though I’m very good at delegating power, reviews are something over which I do not have any control. Not everyone needs what you have to offer. Some people will like your performance and others will have wanted something else.

Wm: So far, I have reviewed six of your performances for this website, two of them two quite different productions of Rossini’s “Barber of Seville” at San Francisco Opera and Los Angeles Opera. You appeared in the San Francisco production on two different occasions, one during Pamela Rosenberg’s general directorship, one early in the general directorship of her successor David Gockley.  A recent autobiography hints at the tension that existed at that opera company early in this decade.  Were you able to sense a difference in the company between your first appearances and the later ones, or do such matters filter down to the visiting artists?

NG: I think Pamela had a focus on stage direction, with the objective of coming up with innovative ways of presenting old operas. But San Francisco Opera has long had the reputation of being a “singer’s house”.  David has gone back to what the opera house originally was. San Francisco Opera is built around great singers.

Wm: You did have the opportunity to ride a Vespa in the Rosenberg-era production of Rossini’s “Barber of Seville”. What was that like?

NG: I found that production to be very challenging. Timing my entrance riding a Vespa to be at a particular point onstage in time with the music introducing Figaro’s aria Largo al factotum was very difficult.

[Below: Figaro (Nathan Gunn) attends to a friend on the Vespa he uses to drive around Seville; edited image, based on a photograph, courtesy of the San Francisco Opera.]

The conductor, Stefan Soltesz, would get upset with me arriving too late, and I would say I’m doing the best I can. But it was fun.

Wm: In the mid-20th century, it was more common for opera stars to move between Broadway, movies and opera than it seems now. In 2008, when you appeared with the New York Philharmonic as Lancelot in a staged production of Lerner and Loewe’s “Camelot”, New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini suggested that your opera fans might worry about you moving into a new career on Broadway.  Do your opera fans have cause for worry?

[Below: Nathan Gunn as Sir Lancelot in "Camelot"; edited image, based on a photograph, courtesy of www.nathangunn.com.]

NG: I love doing “Camelot” and working with the musical theater people. What I love about them is that they have an incredible work ethic. They put in so many hours. They put on eight shows a week and seem tireless in the amount of time that they dedicate to preparing and performing these shows. We are pampered as opera singers.

Would I commit to a Broadway show? I can’t imagine it happening.It doesn’t fit the operatic world, in which we contract for our time so many years in the future. I will do semi-staged musicals and concerts with excerpts from musicals, but that is as far as I would be able to go.

Currently, I am planning a show with Mandy Patinkin. He loves words and storytelling. We are getting together something on the order of a “Martin and Lewis” collaboration.

Wm: Will you be the Martin or the Lewis?

NG: Oh, I’m the Martin. In fact, just last week I returned from Sun Valley and Julie and I went to Chicago to spend four hours rehearsing the show with Patinkin. With the Broadway stars, you don’t plan on stopping for breaks. They thrive on the love for what they are doing.

Wm: If the New York Philharmonic can present a rudimentary staging of “Camelot”, why couldn’t an opera company do a full staging of the work? Do you think that would be a good idea? Would you be interested in singing Lancelot as part of a major opera company’s regular season?

NG: I would love to sing Lancelot for an opera company. In fact, a lot of the “pre-microphone” musicals would suit the opera house. Gordon McRae and John Raitt had big voices. The orchestrations were such that unmiked singers could be heard.

What would not work at an opera house are the Sondheim musicals and the like, because their dense orchestrations presuppose that the singers are wearing microphones. I performed in Mozart’s “Nozze di Figaro” at the Ravinia Festival which was presenting several Sondheim works.  Broadway stars Audra McDonald and Kelli O’Hara were performing. I found their work to be very impressive.

Wm: Although it seemed a natural choice for the Lyric Opera in Chicago to invite a young Illinois baritone with great diction and a winsome physique to star in “Billy Budd”, it is less obvious that the Paris Opera in 2000 would have invited you to sing the role of the Prince in Prokofiev’s “War and Peace”. Was your invitation on the recommendation of the production designer Francesca Zambello?

NG: That was entirely Zambello, who had done a production of the opera in Seattle. Gerard Mortier, then the Paris Opera intendant, visited us in United States and approved me for the Paris Opera’s production of  ”War and Peace”. It was a great experience. Zambello and I worked together a number of times.

[Below: Nathan Gunn in Munich, standing in front of his image on a poster for the Opera's production of "Billy Budd"; edited image, based on a photograph, courtesy of www.nathangunn.com.]

Wm: I see you will be joining Zambello in Glimmerglass, New York in Summer 2011 for her inaugural season as General Director. Are you planning to work with her at San Francisco Opera or elsewhere in future seasons?

NG: I’ve got some future contracts with the San Francisco Opera, although I’m not sure whether the operas are ones that she will be directing. What will happen at Glimmerglass is not all set in stone, but I will be there both as a performer and to work with other singers. Zambello is going to put things back on the right path.

Wm: In the past, you have expressed interest in doing the title role of Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” and Rodrigue in Verdi’s “Don Carlos”. You are scheduled to do Onegin in Cincinnati next summer. Do you have a “Don Carlos” engagement in the works? With the Britten centennial and Wagner and Verdi bicentennials all set for 2013, are there any roles you are planning to prepare for that season?’

NG: So far, there are no plans in the making for “Don Carlos”. I would also like to do Pelleas in Debussy’s “Pelleas et Melisande” and the title role in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”.

Wm: What is your favorite opera?

NG: Richard Strauss’ “Salome” is my favorite opera. It’s like eating a great rare steak. I would love to perform the role of Jokanaan – John the Baptist. That’s a great character.

Wm: Who are some of the opera singers, stage directors and conductors you particularly admire?

NG: I admire many people – Placido Domingo would be at the top. He’s a nice man, and sings beautifully still. And he brings large numbers of new people to opera. Luciano Pavarotti was one of the greatest singers on the planet. A favorite from the past is John Charles Thomas. He was just great. He sang lots of opera and performed in vaudeville as well.

Another baritone I admired was Cornell MacNeil, and among the sopranos, Birgit Nilsson. I adore Flicka – Frederica von Stade – with her heart of gold and the ability to love this business and those who perform in it so much.

Of the conductors, I obviously admire Jimmy Levine, who is so encouraging. I loved Robert Shaw and  like working with Daniel Harding, with whom I have recorded “Billy Budd”. It’s hard to name all the artists whose work I appreciate.

Wm: And who are your favorites among the artists who do not sing opera?

NG: I love the work of Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Bing Crosby, Freddy Mercury of “Queen”, K. D. Laing, and among many others. I was very impressed by the work of Victoria Clark in Weill’s “The Firebrand of Florence” and Ricky Ian Gordon’s “Grapes of Wrath”. What a beautiful singer she is, with such a big heart. It’s so good. It’s a wonderful thing for me to be able to be involved in a little bit of the world of theatre.

Wm: Thank you, Nathan.

For my reviews of operas in which Nathan Gunn performed, see:

Spirited, Beautifully Sung “Don Pasquale” at Dallas Opera – February 19, 2010

and Florez and DiDonato Dominate Los Angeles Opera’s “Barbiere di Siviglia” – December 6, 2009

and Los Angeles Opera’s Magic Potion: Nino Machaidze in “L’Elisir d’Amore” – September 12, 2009

and  Conlon’s Magical Revival of Mozart’s “Flute” at L. A. Opera – January 10, 2009

and Eyecatching, Mellifluous “Pearl Fishers” at Lyric Opera – October 16, 2008

and Deconstructing S.F. Opera’s Super-sized “Barber” – November 12, 2006.

[The following interview with baritone Nathan Gunn was conducted in August, 2010]

Wm: You grew up in South Bend in Northern Indiana, and now reside in Champagne-Urbana, in East Central Illinois. Yet you spend a part of each year in the world’s great cosmopolitan cities, even while you are paterfamilias for a large family back in Illinois. Do you feel that growing up and living in the American Heartland has instilled core values in yourself that you live by and Downstate Illinois continuously reinforces them?

NG: One thing I like about the Midwest, is that there is a lot of space. The cost of living is less. Everyone is a little bit more realistic about their lives. It’s hard for me to judge what  may be “core values” in the Midwest, because I didn’t grow up anywhere else, so I don’t have anything to compare it to.

[Below: Nathan Gunn, edited image, based on a photograph from www.nathangunn.com.]

My mom and dad would say, you have to make a living, and make the sacrifices. My family has an understanding that sometimes you “just have to do what you have to do”. That’s all part of being a Midwesterner. On top of that, there is certainly an emphasis on taking care of your family.

Wm: How do you balance home and career?

NG: My wife and I decided that, when I was away, we would spend the money to see each other and our kids. My kids get a lot of opportunities to experience “fancy stuff” through my work travels. During the regular opera season the kids trade of with one another traveling with me. My two oldest daughters will come to Madrid with me next Spring. The twins are the youngest and spend more time with each other, but I work on making sure I spend time with everyone. The summer opera festivals are a bit easier on us as a family because they last a couple of months rather than a couple of weeks and the kids are out of school.

There are of course nightmare experiences that can occur, and when I see Kevin and Heidi Grant Murphy at the Metropolitan Opera, who travel with their four kids, we compare travel stories.

[Below: Julie Gunn accompanies her husband Nathan; edited image, based on a photograph from www.nathangunn.com.]

Wm: While at University of Ilinois Champaign-Urbana, you became a voice student of a retired professor, the late William Miller, and even arranged an extended period of individual study to work with him on Schubert lieder full time. Many would find that a daring career move. What did you find to be special about his teaching?

NG: Bill Miller taught me everything I know about singing. He called his approach “nature’s way of singing” – how your body worked to produce sound in a healthy way. When I started studying with him I had no idea how to do it. My girl friend (now my wife, Julie) worked as accompanist with one of his students, Leroy Kromm (now of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music faculty) who recommended Miller, then an 83 year emeritus professor, to me.

I would take lessons with him. In fact, my education was inundated with Miller’s voice lessons. John Wustman and I performed hundreds of times – I estimate about 600 performances as a student with Wustman as my accompanist.

You had to stand there, tell a story in German, without any of the distractions of opera to divert an audience’s attention from what you are singing. Lieder gave me a good foundation with music making. Afterwards, acting on stage in opera came to me naturally.

I often think about Miller and what he taught me. He would never talk about “focusing” sounds. He would never use the term “support”. For him using legato was binding all the sounds in a word together, not just the vowels. He believed in developing a beautiful singing voice whose words could be understood. He said that a person who spoke in English should sing in English.

Miller sang oratorio. He was on radio’s Carnation Breakfast Hour. He had been working during the Great Depression. He constantly told great stories.

What skills learned from him do you continue to use?

The first lesson I learned is that a student should find a teacher and obey. I understood the sign at the place Miller taught that read “within these wall lies vocal health”. I told him I would do whatever he told me to do.

I teach part of the time, and I now reflect on how Mr Miller taught me. He told and repeated a lot of stories.  These stories not only taught me a truth about singing or about being a student, they also (I realize now) taught me how to be a teacher as well. These stories would calm you down. He wouln’t let a student determine the pace of the lesson. You had to go at his pace in order to not skip any steps.

Wm: In 1994, you participated in and won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was accepted into the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist’s Program. What is your most vivid recollection of your period as a Lindemann Young Artist?

NG: Probably the most intense moment was when I was the cover for Guglielmo in Mozart’s “Cosi fan Tutte”. Mark Oswald was scheduled to sing the broadcast, but was indisposed, and I had to step in as his cover and perform the role. It was like having a big audition for the whole world.

I remember all of my experiences as a Lindemann artist. All of it is vivid. It was a powerful time for me. I was able to observe the creation of a new production of Verdi’s “Otello” with Placido Domingo in the title role.  I was doing master classes with Hermann Prey, Renata Scotto, and Sherill Milnes. I was working on my acting with Stephen Wadsworth. Julie, my wife, was working as an accompanist for the Lindemann program. We performed for Met patron parties and learned about the arts in New York City.

[Below: Nathan Gunn is Arlecchino in Christof Loy's 2002 production of Richard Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos" for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden; edited image of a Clive Barda photograph for the ROH Covent Garden.]

I came to know how completely the Met will take care of you. I had a conversation with the Met’s artistic administrator, Jonathan Friend. I wanted to study with my voice teacher, William Miller. Friend asked me to explain why I would have only one lesson every two weeks. I said when you prepare a garden, you start by roto-tilling, but then after a while you are just pulling weeds, and keeping things on the right path. The Met is good at producing opera. But it is not the Met that should be taking care of my vocal health. That is my responsibility.

Wm: Would you agree that the combination of university-based vocal performance programs with the major Young Artists programs has produced an unprecedented number of North American opera singers of the first rank?

NG: I think that if you get a bachelor’s degree in voice over  a five year period, your voice will have time to mature before you begin to work on opera. Opera is an adult activity. An opera singer needs a lot of strength. Allowing singers time to mature is why we produce so many excellent opera singers.

[Below: Billy Budd (Nathan Gunn) climbs the riggings of the "Indomitable"; edited image, based on a Dan Rest photograph, courtesy of the Lyric Opera, Chicago.]

Wm: A role that brought you acclaim early in your career was the title role in Britten’s “Billy Budd”. You have now performed the role in productions conceived by David McVicar (Lyric Opera, 2001), Willi Decker (a production revival at San Francisco Opera, 2004), Francesca Zambello (Pittsburgh Opera) and Peter Mussbach (Munich). Do you believe you have a good take on that character? And do you think you have a clear understanding of what motivates the character of John Claggart?

[Below: Foretopman Billy Budd (Nathan Gunn) assumes the moral leadership of the crew of the "Indomitable"; edited image, based on a photograph for the San Francisco Opera.]

NG: Usually, when I get a question about the characters in “Billy Budd” it is whether I think that Captain Vere was right to approve the death sentence on Budd. In fact, I had a conversation on Vere with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, whom I came to know because she  is a great opera fan. She noted that many law schools pose the question to students as to whether Vere made the correct legal and moral choice.

In general, I believe in the motivations of the characters in Budd, as Britten has written them. I try to play Billy Budd simply. Whatever he says, he believes. In fact, one could say that about all of us. At the time we say something, we sincerely believe what we are saying. Later we may change our mind on what we should have said, but whatever we say is usually what we mean at the time.

[Below: Nathan Gunn as Billy Budd in a production in Munich; edited image, based on a photograph, courtesy of www.nathangunn.org).]

John Claggart is supposed to be evil, but I think he represents something of what we all are like. Claggart never says he hates Billy. Claggart is trying to make order in his life and that around him. Billy screws that up.

Claggart is associated with an old nautical term for the masters-at-arms – “Jemmy Legs” – which at the time had the connotation of a dandy, but a person not born into the upper class. Claggart is a fastidious person, who is not controllable, while Billy, much like a stoic, who knows that he can only control what he himself thinks, says and does, but must accept whatever his fate turns out to be. Free will has entered a ship that is ruled by law.

Wm: Yet Claggart has been given the responsibility of assuring there is no mutiny. Billy Budd has become a de facto leader of the crew, which is something that Claggart finds deeply disturbing and challenging to the authority that has been delegated to him as master-at-arms.

NG: Yes, one can draw parallels between the British man-o-war officers and the Spartan warriors, who were constantly terrified of the possibility of being overwhelmed by a slave revolt.

Wm: It is an unstable situation when both Claggart and Billy Budd exert different methods to control men simultaneously; thus Claggart’s authority cannot continue to exist in the world that Billy Budd has created.

[Below: Billy Budd (Nathan Gunn) is summarily executed as a result of striking and killing John Claggart, a superior; edited image, based on a photograph for the Pittsburgh Opera.]

NG: It’s what Britten does all the time in his operas. Claggart hates Billy Budd because he loves Billy Budd and must destroy him or be destroyed, which will in the end ultimately lead to his destruction. Much like the sentence, “This sentence is untrue.” If it’s true then it is untrue and therefore true which makes it untrue, etc. Britten is a master at tackling these kinds of subjects. There are a few operas that improve masterpieces. Britten’s “Billy Budd” and Verdi’s “Otello” are two that come to mind that get to and surpass the essence of the original work.

Wm: Are their more Billy Budds in your future?

NG: I’ll be singing Billy Budd at the Met when they next bring it back. I know they worry about how well it will draw, but I’ve never done it anywhere that it didn’t sell out. I have a long history with the opera. My first role was the Novice’s Friend. In the future, I plan to perform the role of Lieutenant Redburn and will mentor future Billy Budds, just as Richard Stilwell, who was Redburn to my Billy Budd, did for me.

Wm: You’ve done a number of contemporary works, including several world premieres. Do you believe that out of the current group of opera composers, we are likely to see some new works enter the standard repertory? Are there new works, already produced, that you believe will achieve lasting popularity, or at least signal who the composers are that will write great operatic works in the future?

NG: I love new pieces. They take up a lot of time, but it’s worth it for me. As a musician, I don’t want to be a curator of opera. I want to help create the new ones. Recently, I worked in Previn’s “Brief Encounter” in Houston. I loved the fact that it was an opera about a woman in the middle of her life. It’s a real story and its characters are beautifully portrayed. I consider it a work that speaks to all generations and all times.

[Below: Laura (Elizabeth Futral) becomes involved in an affair with Alec (Nathan Gunn); edited image, based on a Felix Sanchez photograph, courtesy of the Houston Grand Opera.]

One of my good friends is Gene Scheer who wrote the libretto for Heggie’s “Moby Dick”. I believe that opera will last and that Ben Heppner will be remembered for having created the role of Captain Ahab.

Wm: I was able to be at the “Moby Dick” world premiere. Because it is already scheduled to be performed at the San Diego Opera, San Francisco Opera, Calgary Opera, and Opera of South Australia, it is assured for the time being of becoming the 21st century’s most performed work.

NG: I love that Scheer took the line Call Me Ishmael that Melville used to open his novel Moby Dick and moved it to the final line of the opera. Heggie’s “Moby Dick” will last. I think other operas that are being written now will also last.

[In the second part of this interview, Nathan Gunn talks about the widespread attention to his physique, to roles he would still like to do, and answers the question as to whether he might leave opera to do Broadway musicals.]

Wolfgang Amadeus (note about film Amadeus below) Mozart’s final operatic masterpiece, “Die Zauberfloete” (The Magic Flute) once again enchants Santa Fe Opera audiences. The summer 2010 season is the 54th for The Santa Fe Opera in beautiful olde Santa Fe  - now celebrating its 400th anniversary. The “Magic Flute” has been a very frequent show-stopper of the all-time operatic wunderkind here – this year being a lucky thirteenth presentation since 1968!

[Below: Tamino (Charles Castronovo) walks with the animals; edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera.]

For those of you who love and collect numbers (don’t we all for certain favorite things?), the operas of Mozart have enjoyed the most productions of opera presented by The Santa Fe Opera since its Day One in 1957 in which season Mozart’s charming “Cosi fan tutte” was presented after the first opera fully staged here – Puccini’s glorious “Madama Butterfly”.

“Butterfly” opened this summer’s 2010 season and reviewed by your website host William who additionally reviewed this season’s brand-new-for Santa Fe, Offenbach’s  ”Tales of Hoffman”. (For the previous 2010 season reviews see: Kaduce’s Incandescent Cio Cio San, Jovanovich’s Injudicious Pinkerton, Emblazon Blakeley’s “Butterfly” – Santa Fe Opera, July 16, 2010 and Groves, Wall, Lindsey Excel in Christopher Alden’s Harrowing, Hallucinatory “Hoffmann” – Santa Fe Opera, July 17, 2010.) The balance of this summer opera festival, which I regard without any doubt whatever as the premier summer opera festival in America, included Britten’s “Albert Herring” and a world premiere of “Life is a Dream”, an opera written by Lewis Spratlan, based on The Golden Age of Spanish Drama.

[Below: Sarastro (Andrea Silvestrelli, right) explains to Pamina (Ekaterina Siurina) why she should seek a different view of the world than the one taught her by her mother; edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera.]

For those who know The Santa Fe Opera well, it comes as no surprise that the operas of Richard Strauss have graced Santa Fe’s stage more than those of any other composer, as Founding Father Emeritus John Crosby adored Strauss’ works. And since that Santa Fe Opera Day One in 1957 what composer’s operas played second-fiddle, as it were, to those of Richard Strauss?  Mozart’s nine operas compared with Strauss’ 13, but alas, Mozart gets the giant bouquet of roses for the most opera productions here by quite a margin – “The Marriage of Figaro”. But not every opera composer has received this kind of attention – prolific composers like Richard Wagner, Peter Tschaikovski, and Dmitri Shostakovitch have only had one each!

But then there’s such a thing as paying the overhead, selling tickets and other such boring details, particularly in tough economic times like we have experienced the last several years which have immensely impacted all of the performing arts, most certainly including opera – the most expensive of the performing arts – but also the Greatest Show on Earth, and at this The Santa Fe Opera truly excels!

[Below: the Three Ladies (Audrey Walstrom, Rachel Willis-Sorensen and Renee Tatum) present Prince Tamino (Charles Castronovo) with a locket; edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera.]

But I digress. Many critics laud Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” or his ”Marriage of Figaro” as the greatest of all operas, with which I would not strenuously argue, but to me the “Magic Flute” has Mozart’s most glorious operatic music, although, for many, the story-line is wacky, but nevertheless very entertaining. Speaking of which, if you haven’t seen the fabulous film about Mozart – aptly named Amadeus – by all means go rent it at Blockbuster or order it from Netflix. It’s utterly sensational – you’ll never forget it, and the image of him – with his comic laugh – shown in this dazzling flick will stick with you forever. I have watched my DVD of this dozens of time!!

“The Magic Flute” is a Singspiel – a musical play, and a play it is with much spoken dialogue – here done in English – but the music issung in German. Don’t fret – for Santa Fe, like the Met, has the best system in the world for following the action without craning your neck gaping at supertitles seemingly in outer space. You just touch a button on the screen in front of you in the backrest of that seat in front, and voila!, there is the full translation in English or Spanish. I’ve seen purists – who wouldn’t deign to read supertitles – take furtive looks at these screens. By all means do when you come here – it makes the piece 1000% better since you’ll understand what’s happening.

[Below: Papageno (Joshua Hopkins) pursues his career as a birdcatcher; edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera.]

Every opera-lover knows this complicated, often perplexing piece somewhat, but as a quicky Opera-101 refresher, here’s my brief take: It starts out as a romantic fairy tale as the handsome, young Prince Tamino encounters a series of grievous trials and travails, one of which is a creepy monster-serpent – often portrayed as in Wagner’s epic opera Siegfried when that hero slays the evil, hissing, salivating Dinosaur-inspired Fafner on his way to triumph.

[Below: A monster intends to have a dinner of Prince Tamino (Charles Castronovo); edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera.]

Soon, Papageno – the Birdcatcher – arrives on the scene – by far the most beguiling, enchanting character of this whole crew, singing one of the most catchy (sorry) tune of all Der Vogelfaenger bin ich ja (the birdcatcher yes I am), but he’s after the wife of his dreams who, surprise of surprises, shows up at the end as an old witch, but suddenly metamorphs into a dazzling looker. The two launch into the most ingenious and enchanting duet in all of Mozart’s works – this number is worth the price of the ticket alone!!

But meanwhile, Prince Tamino must somehow rescue Pamina, the gorgeous daughter of the evil and imperious Queen of the Night (who gets the most roaring-ovation killer-arias of all), and Mozart sees to it that he conveniently receives a magic flute and a Glockenspiel to help clear the way, for playing these suddenly makes everyone become delirious in happiness – in this production it makes them giddy as if polluted with booze!! The music that goes with this is magically sensational – Mozart at the apotheosis of his powers. No one will leave this production without remembering that Glockenspiel!

To help pave the way for the story, Mozart has three children who arrive and save the day at the most convenient times, here clad in Buddhist yellow-orange robes, bald as novice monks – and adorable! At the most needed time, they lower on ropes the Magic Flute, the Glockenspiel (in a sparkling Blue lunch-box) and a big McDonald’s Bag for Papageno loaded with Big Macs, fries – the works, which he devours with relish (included in the McDonald’s bag?).

[Below: Papageno (Joshua Hopkins), dissuaded from suicide, receives a magic glockenspiel from the three Genii (Trent Llewellyn, Sean Jahner and Craig Short); edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera.]

Off go the Prince and the Birdcatcher on their often Vaudeville-scale quests through huge, perilous trials and torments - affording Mozart luscious material for some of the most sublime music extant. Did I mention I love this piece? I reviewed this same Tim Albery production in Santa Fe Opera’s 2006 season, the sets to which are minimal (Critic Heidi Waleson of the Wall Street Journal thought they blew at least $50 on these sets) but terrific costumes.

The casting for this production is superb, with young, striking tenor Charles Castronovo seen as Prince Tamino, Joshua Hopkins as our Birdcatcher Papageno, un-gussied-up as the next-door college kid complete with Levi’s, yellow sneakers (aka athletic shoes in today’s lingo), red T-shirt (bird print on front, of course), opposite his Papagena who is Jamie-Rose Guarine, Pamina played by Russian Soprano Ekaterina Siurina.

[Below: Ekaterina Siurina is Pamina; edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera.]

Her Mom the Queen of the Night is Audrey Luna for this evening as a very evil, threatening figure indeed, but previously by Erin Morby for the balance of the season, Andrea Silvestrelli (a truly fabulous low-low bass basso reminding me of the late basso Cesare Siepi) as the severe but most lovable Sarastro opposite the Real Bad Guy Monostatos of Timothy Oliver, clad along with his henchmen as East German “Stasi” police.

[Below: Monostatos (Tim Oliver, third from left in dark uniform, and his slaves (from left to right in gray uniforms, Heath Huberg, Brad Benoit, Albert Gleuckert, Thomas Forde, Brent Turner and Samuel Levine, create an unpleasant situation for Papageno (Joshua Hopkins, front left) and Pamina (Ekaterina Siurina, front right); edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera.]

The performance took place under the very competent baton of Lawrence Renes returning to Santa Fe after his 2007 debut in the premiere of “Tea, A Mirror of Soul”.  As if he didn’t have enough to do as Albert Herring in that opera, Alek Shrader moonlights as Prince Tamino on the Final Aug 27 Magic Flute. (Charles Castronovo is off to L. A. for rehearsals for the title role in the world premiere of Catan’s “Il Postino”, which opens the Los Angeles Opera’s 2010-2011 season.)

Mother Nature played a most prominent role in tonight’s production (seen Aug 23, 2010) – presenting with an ominously threatening, black sky with raindrops intervening. The back of the stage was open to this sky, and during the thrilling overture, great streaks of lightning spangled the sky as if on cue! Indeed, while the evil Queen of the Night arrives and sings her diatribe, flashes of lightning again obliged, but I suspect the Director of Lighting may want to take credit for these terrific effects!

[Below: Audrey Luna is the Queen of the Night: edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera.]

In this production, the piece opens with the huge snake-like monster with mouth agape and steaming – but Prince Tamino is trapped in that mouth – struggling to get out as the Three Ladies (here brilliantly portrayed by Rachel Willis-Sorensen, Audrey Walstrom, and Renee’ Tatum) come upon this dreadful scene armed with spears with which they do in the serpent, all three dreaming that they would love to have this guy as a hubby! Papageno arrives, meets the Prince, sees the dead serpent, and promptly takes credit for finishing off the monster. To that, one of the three ladies clamp his lying mouth shut with a dog-muzzle which our Papageno uses to great audience acclaim.

An especially enchanting scene is when the flute and Glockenspiel are played, huge animals appear on stage, a gigantic MGM-style lion on the right, monster Tiger on the left, 40′ long Croc, and the Biggest Beaked Bird you’ve ever seen – to the ecstatic enchantment of the house. One other very nice touch – Papageno’s dream wife does show up at long last – clad in exactly the same rig as Papageno, then onstage come their swarms of children.

[Below: Papageno (Joshua Hopkins) and Papagena (Jamie-Rose Guarrine) share their ideas on family planning; edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera.]

In closing, may I again suggest that this is summer opera at its best in America, in an incomparable setting with spectacular blood-red sunsets, majestic mountains, World Class opera beyond doubt, and a town groaning with fabulous Southwest eats and great shopping. See my “Tom’s Tips to Opera in Santa Fe” on this website. Have fun!

Tom Rubbert