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By Richard Anderson 


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Imagine an object or amulet, some power or spell, that could sustain you through the greatest misfortunes, could turn sorrow to joy, could cause the confirmed bachelor to fall helplessly in love, something that could, without fail, increase happiness and contentment.

 

In Mozart’s operatic fairy tale “The Magic Flute,” Tamino, the hero of the story, receives such a gift before embarking on a quest to save the princess Pamina, a powerful talisman that will save him from the perils to come.

 

But, as Mozart knew and as we all realize once the secret is revealed, this power is at all of our fingertips: It’s music — the universal balm, the bridge that unites, the power to restore youth to our elders and the wisdom to make children our guides.

 

“I have two kids, 9 and 5,” said tenor Paul Appleby, who will sing the role of Tamino in the Grand Teton Music Festival’s production of “The Magic Flute” this weekend. With its clownish bird catcher Papageno, its battle between bright and dark magic, its dangerous trials and mystical symbols, the opera has appealed to all ages since its Sept. 30, 1791, premiere in Vienna. But experiencing it through the eyes of his own children brought the primary theme of the work, and the brilliance of how it is dramatized, into focus.

 

“That’s not magic,” Appleby said. “It’s just what music does. … It’s how we use it — it’s music exactly. There’s nothing supernatural at all. And ‘The Magic Flute’ is able to convey that truth.”

 

An enormous effort

 

On the other hand, some magic seems necessary to bring Mozart’s music and Emanuel Schikaneder’s libretto alive — or at least a heck of a lot of forethought, vision, preparation and expertise. With veteran stage director David Lefkowich and GTMF Music Director Sir Donald Runnicles, the Music Festival pulls together the talents of scores of artists to do just that in its Walk Festival Hall.

 

There is the Festival Orchestra, of course, led by Runnicles, whose opera experience goes back more than 35 years and includes a lengthy stint as music director and principal conductor of the San Francisco Opera and 17 years and counting as music director of the Deutsche Oper of Berlin.

 

Since taking the helm of the Grand Teton Festival Orchestra in 2005, Runnicles has dreamed of bringing opera to western Wyoming. The initiative launched in 2018 with Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story,” a concert performance with all of the music but minimal staging. In 2019, it presented highlights from Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” with Runnicles acting as a narrator to stitch together the famous arias and duets. In 2022, Runnicles and guests offered a version of Puccini’s “La Bohème,” with props, costumes, projected scenery and limited dramatic staging. And last year it upped production values even more with Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly.”

 

“We ourselves are surprised by how very enthusiastic our audience has been,” he said, adding that people who don’t usually come for the summer’s classical concerts come out for these programs. “We are clearly reaching people who are genuinely excited that we are performing opera.”

 

After a couple of years of high tragedy, the festival opted for this family favorite, with spoken dialogue in English and singing in the original German.

 

For “The Magic Flute,” the orchestra will been augmented by the Grand Teton Music Festival Chorus, assembled and led by Barlow Bradford, professor of choral studies at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, and Eric Schmidt, associate conductor of the Utah Symphony Chorus. They will be joined by choristers from the Madeleine Choir School, a pre-K to eighth-grade institution modeled after classical European choir schools, also headquartered in Salt Lake City, led by Melanie Malinka.

 

Tamino and Pamina

 

“The Magic Flute” features some of opera’s most memorable characters, including the handsome prince Tamino, played by Appleby. The object of his quest, Pamina, will be performed by soprano Heidi Stober, who has sung the role many times, including at the Metropolitan Opera, and whose international career has taken her throughout the United States and Europe. She has a long and fruitful association with Runnicles and the Ditcher Oper Berlin. At Walk Hall over the years, she has sung in “West Side Story,” Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana,” “The Barber of Seville,” “La Bohème,” and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 and No. 4

 

Also returning is Puerto Rico-born soprano Meechot Marrero in the role of Papagena, a “pretty spectacular, fun little lady,” as she described her, who fulfills Papageno’s dreams of love and domestic bliss.

 

While there are larger roles in the opera, Papagena is “the light of the show,” she said. “There is so much shadow and depth and a lot of sadness” in “The Magic Flute,” but Papagena and Papageno bring much of the light and joy to the story, she said, and, near the end of Act II, share one of the most famous duets in all of opera.

 

“She is priceless to me,” said Marrero, who also has worked with Runnicles at the Deutsche Oper Berlin for years and who took on Maria in the Festival’s “West Side Story” program. “It’s one of the first things I learned as a professional singer and has been with me throughout the journey.”

 

One of most satisfying aspects of Runnicles’ job, he told the News&Guide in 2018, it getting to know other fine artists and to “give them the opportunity to come here and to give the orchestra and our audience the chance to hear [them]. That personal connection is always meaningful to me.”

 

This year, in addition to Appleby, he will introduce to the Festival baritone Alexander Birch Elliott in the role of Papageno, soprano Jeni Houser as the magically (and vocally) powerful Queen of the Night, bass Raymond Aceto as Pamina’s captor Sarastro and tenor Rodell Rosel as Sarastro’s head slave Monostatos.

 

Stage magic

 

With Runnicles rounding up vocalists and leading the orchestra and choir, acclaimed stage director David Lefkowich attended to many other details.

 

Based out of Minnesota, Lefkowich has directed productions for the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Glimmerglass Opera and the San Francisco Opera, where he worked with Runnicles for years. In the Tetons, he directed “West Side Story,” “La Bohème” and “Madama Butterfly.”

 

The Grand Teton Festival’s “Magic Flute” might not be as opulent as what some of those companies regularly pull off — Walk Hall is a concert venue, after all, not a theatrical stage, he said — but the great challenges result in great reward.

 

“People who are used to more traditional opera … are used to giant, elaborate sets,” he said last week. His task is to transport audiences and immerse them in Mozart’s world without such resources.

 

One of the ways he does that is by using projections and lighting effect in lieu of scenery. As with last year’s “Madame Butterfly,” with assistance from GTMF staffers such as General Manager Jeff Counts, he sourced artwork to help create an appropriately magical and mysterious visual environment. This year, they discovered two artists represented by Diehl Gallery: Wendy Klemperer, from Brooklyn, New York, and Claire Brewster, who lives and works in London.

 

In the very first scene, Tamino is menaced by a serpent. Attracted by some of Klemperer’s animal art, Lefkowich and crew asked her to create snake images they could animate. Similarly, Brewster’s body of work includes paper birds she cuts by hand from old maps. These, too, were animated to flutter and flit around Papageno. Both artists also paint, and some of Klemperer’s watercolors of fire and water, and Brewster’s abstract canvases, were chosen to create the Queen of the Night’s and Sarastro’s contrasting realms.

 

Just as Mozart’s music opens up a channel to a world beyond words, Brewster said, “as an artist, I’m always trying to connect with the big things, nature, and to find a way of express that, to bring it home and bring joy to them.”

 

Rather than allowing the concert setting to be an obstacle in dramatizing the story, Lefkowich finds ways to take advantage of it. Mozart’s 18th-century score calls for a relatively small orchestra, which gives more room for the singers to move about, and even allows them to interact with the instrumentalists and the audience.

 

“The action will be very close,” he said.

 

Appleby, Marrero and Lefkowich all said “The Magic Flute” has been one of the most popular operas among both audiences and companies, practically since its debut and certainly within a few years of Mozart’s death, mere months after the premiere. But it is not an easy piece to produce, and Lefkowich doesn’t take any easy path to realize it. His process started nearly a year ago, he said, and it will continue right up until showtime.

 

“I treasure these operas,” he said of the Music Festival’s stagings. He creates huge and elaborate stage productions throughout the rest of the year, “but these have a special place.

 

“They are not like any other rendition or production; they are truly unique to the Teton Music Festival.

 

“It makes me so happy to have a place that is so excited about creating something new,” he said. “People will get to be treated to an exemplary, superlative experience. You can only get this in Jackson Hole.” 

 

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