“The Magic Flute” Reviewed by Maya Bouchend’homme

Highly Recommended ****

Editor Note: When it comes to shows (of any type) where a young person is the perfect audience, I try to get one of my grandkids to attend and give opinions. With our schedules being very hectic right now, all of the usual kids being tied up, I went to another source- my daughter-in-law’s niece, Maya, a twelve year old young girl, who adores “the arts”.

Here is what she has to say:

“The Magic Flute” is a show that both grown ups and kids will enjoy. If you don’t speak the language that they sing in, don’t worry. They have sub (super) titles so you can understand. The voices are amazing!

The show starts a bit late, so younger viewers should be prepared for a LATE NIGHT!  There were real dogs in the show! That was neat to see!

My favorite part was the costumes. It looked like the children made their own animal costumes (which were so cute!), especially,  the dragon in the beginning. One of the funniest moments was when the ugly guards were enchanted by the magic bells and danced around like Fairies.”

Here is some other information about the production at The Lyric Opera-

This is The  Lyric’s brand new production of “The Magic Flute” .  The set and properties looked so simplistic allowing the focus to be on the material itself.

Director Neil Armfield’s production went  back to a 1960s house party, where a fantastical entertainment was being supplied by the neighborhood children. Perfectly coiffed Laura Petrie-like moms watched their children race around the corners of a post-WWII home,. In fact, the characters remind us of the TV sit-coms of the 1960’s

The wildly talented neighborhood adults who sang the music the children inspired must have made one hell of a local church choir. Andrew Staples (Tamino) sang with an achingly earnest tenor and Christiane Karg (Pamina) was picture and pitch-perfect. Christof Fischesser (Sarastro) rumbled thrillingly and Kathryn Lewek (Queen of the Night) her than one can imagine, and does so perfectly.

The show is pretty pricy for the youngsters and that is a shame. It seems that we need a place to expose children to opera, where a family can afford to go without giving up the rent.

Lyric Opera of Chicago, 20 Wacker Drive, (312)332-2244, lyricopera.org, $20-$299. Through January 27. Performance schedule is on the website, www.lyricopera.org

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “The Magic Flute”