Director's Note for The Magic Flute

Welcome and thank you for coming to tonight’s performance of The Magic Flute! We appreciate your support and we hope you enjoy this wonderful tale of good triumphant over evil.

In this opera, things are not always as they appear. At the beginning, the Queen of the Night seems to be in distress that her daughter has been kidnapped she persuades Tamino that Sarastro is an evil villain. It is only later that we find out that the Queen of the Night is actually nefarious and that Sarastro is Beneficent. Papageno, desperate to find a wife, encounters an old woman who, in the end, reveals herself to be the 18 year old Papagena, a perfect match for him.

Many diverse and complex characters live in this world. Tamino, a foreigner to this land, is courageous and is willing to risk his life to save the beautiful Pamina. Pamina loves her mother, the Queen of the Night, despite her abusive actions toward her, including the horrifying demand to murder Sarastro with a dagger. The Queen of the Night obsesses incessantly about how to reclaim the power that her deceased husband gave to Sarastro. The 3 Ladies, servants of the Queen, are a lively bunch, full of personality. The bird-catcher Papageno, a bit of a simpleton, has a good heart, but shirks in the face of danger. Papagena is a beautiful young woman who is a perfect match for him. The 3 Spirits are a force for good guiding Tamino and Papageno and protecting others from danger. Sarastro is an old, wise, and beneficent high priest of the Temple, whom the Speaker tries to emulate. Monostatos is a shady character who is grossly infatuated with Pamina. I emphasize this because I am in such awe at the marvelous menagerie of characters that we are able to bring together in the space of a few hours.

These colorful characters are brought to life by our wonderful singers. I want to thank each and every one of them for their hard work and dedication to making this production possible. I also want to thank my production team for collaborating on the set, costumes, lighting, sound, props and dramaturgy. We are very fortunate to have the BYU Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Kory Katseanes. I want to thank each and every one that is involved in putting this opera on. I love this highly collaborative art form and I hope you have a memorable experience tonight.

Dr. Joshua Lindsay

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by Amelia Johnson, Dramaturg Creating a show is a process. Though the run of the show is over, there was a lot more that went into the show than what was seen in those few weeks. Months before the run, the production team began meetings. They discussed the director’s vision for the show and began planning designs. Everything was approved of and discussed before lights were set, sets, were built, and the costume and makeup designs were implemented. This year, the costume and makeup designers drew inspiration from the local artist, James Christensen. Having passed away earlier this year, director Dallyn Bayles thought it would be nice to pay tribute to him in this way. Costume designer Dennis Wright was thrilled to base his designs of Christensen's style. He said, “What I really love about Christensen’s work is the whimsy that he incorporates into his characters. His distinctive use of patterns, layers and silhouette is really fun and distinctive. I wanted to be sure to capture that in the costume designs for this production. “I love this show, and the concept and design choices our team has made. I am excited to share it with our audience. As a big James Christensen fan, my one regret is that I didn’t actually get to meet the artist in person. I just returned to Utah last year and sadly, missed my chance. I am very grateful to be able to pay tribute to him in this small way”. Makeup and hair designer Sarah Bult also shared some of her thoughts. “After reading the script I looked through as many James Christensen paintings as I could find. I picked out textures, colors, broke it all down and paired certain characters with those elements. His artwork influenced everything from the shape and colors of hair down to the detail on the bead work of the hairpins. I loved that I could draw my inspiration from his work and create something that really embodied his artwork." Bult continued, “One thing I didn’t expect to be a challenge was that not many Christensen pieces have hair showing. This created a very unique and fun challenge for me. I had to look many different paintings, combine textures and colors, and use my own design style to come up with fun fairy tale hair and makeup styles that were reminiscent of Christensen’s artwork. I am very excited to see how all of the elements come together”. Join us on the 4th Wall next time to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes!

Director's Note for The Magic Flute

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