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Natasha Rogai

Opera Hong Kong’s new production of The Magic Flute is a conundrum: the singing, acting and music are first rate, but they are let down by a misjudged concept and designs.
Mozart’s final opera, despite being written when he was suffering from illness and financial woes, is among his most joyous. The libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder, a popular entertainer, offers a combination of low comedy and lofty sentiments.
He and Mozart were both Freemasons and the work has strong masonic elements, advocating universal brotherhood and calling for people to seek harmony and enlightenment.
The fairy-tale plot is far removed from the more realistic drama of other Mozart operas like Don Giovanni or The Marriage of Figaro.
The mysterious Queen of the Night promises the young hero, Tamino, the hand of her daughter Pamina if he rescues her from the mighty priest Sarastro, who has kidnapped her.
Setting out on this quest, the high-minded Tamino is contrasted with his companion, the bird-catcher Papageno, whose only interests are food, drink and finding a girlfriend.

It turns out that the Queen is the villain, while Sarastro represents the forces of good. Tamino must undergo a series of trials before he and Pamina are finally united and the forces of darkness are banished by the light of the sun.
As a fantasy, The Magic Flute offers producers a blank canvas – it can be set in any time and place, from Mozart’s day to pure science fiction. Opera Hong Kong’s previous production, in 2009, remains among the company’s finest achievements.
It was directed by Paul Curran, one of the world’s most sought-after directors – he also directed the Mariinsky Theatre’s magnificent Tosca, a shining example of imaginative, insightful concept and design, executed superbly.
The new production’s director, Shuang Zou, is also much acclaimed but in this instance seems to have lost her way.
She has set the opera on a mass transit system – the dragon which pursues Tamino at the beginning is a projection of a cartoon metro train, people enter and exit the stage through sliding doors to carriages, scenes take place in station waiting rooms.

Presumably this is intended to reflect the fact that Tamino, referred to as “a traveller from afar”, is on a physical and emotional journey. However, taking the metro is scarcely an epic voyage and this is a one-track idea which quickly runs out of steam.
Dan Potra’s sets consist of huge, unwieldy columns which have to be manipulated into different positions by black-clad stage hands, and his costumes are mostly everyday modern clothes; poor Pamina is stuck with black tights and a hideous tartan miniskirt.
Marco Devetak’s video designs have some good moments, but the numerous visuals of trains and huge, empty waiting rooms soon pall.
The trials of fire and water through which Tamino and Pamina pass were a particular disappointment. In this age of technological wizardry, you’d expect these to inspire some spectacular effects; instead, what we got was a couple of trapdoors in the stage being opened, with smoke coming out of one and a somewhat perfunctory shower of what appeared to be ice coming out of the other.
Happily, an exceptional cast transcended the weaknesses of the staging to deliver a performance which did justice to the music, the comedy and the pathos of this masterwork.

American baritone John Chest stole the show as Papageno, complementing the dark, ringing tone of his singing with irresistibly engaging acting. The Magic Flute features much spoken dialogue, here presented in English – while keeping the sung sections in German – and Chest had a ball improvising to enhance the comedy, something Schikaneder himself, the original Papageno, would certainly have done.
The feisty Pamina, Chest’s fellow American Sofia Troncoso, rose to the challenge of joining in the ad lib banter, yet was able to successfully switch moods to deliver her character’s lyrical arias with elegance and emotional depth. Mexican tenor Andres Moreno Garcia was a convincingly gentle, earnest Tamino and sang with lovely warmth of tone.
Aigul Khismatullina’s thrilling account of the Queen of the Night’s two great arias showed why this young Russian soprano is one of the role’s most sought-after interpreters, having performed it at such prestigious opera houses as Covent Garden and Berlin.
This was coloratura singing at its finest – the piercing clarity and perfect pitch of the top notes on Der Hölle Rache (Hell’s Vengeance) seemed impossible for the human voice to achieve.

While Sarastro is supposed to be a commanding presence, Finnish bass Matti Turunen is so enormously tall that he towered over everyone else, creating a rather bizarre effect. His voice was correspondingly huge, but slightly unsteady and he had trouble reaching the lowest notes.
All the other roles were taken by Hong Kong singers, with Freddie Tong a strong, positive Speaker and Henry Ngan pulling out the stops as comic villain Monostatos.
There was outstanding singing from Candice Chung, Ashley Chui and Carol Lin as the mischievous Three Ladies who serve the Queen of the Night, wittily portrayed as flight attendants – one of the production’s better notions.
Conductor Dane Lam drew a splendid rendition of the score from the Opera Hong Kong Orchestra.
“The Magic Flute”, Hong Kong Cultural Centre Grand Theatre. Until May 18. Reviewed: May 16


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A scene from Opera Hong Kong’s new production of The Magic Flute, directed by Shuang Zou, at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. Photo: courtesy of Opera Hong Kong

Andrés Moreno García as Tamino (left) and John Chest as Papageno in a scene from Opera Hong Kong’s The Magic Flute. Photo: courtesy of Opera Hong Kong

A scene from The Magic Flute, directed by Shuang Zou, which premiered at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre on May 15, 2025. Photo: courtesy of Opera Hong Kong

Matti Turunen as Sarastro and Sofia Troncoso as Pamina in a still from The Magic Flute. Photo: courtesy of Opera Hong Kong

Aigul Khismatullina as Queen of the Night. Photo: courtesy of Opera Hong Kong

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For all its amazing vocals, music and acting, production suffers from a confused one-track concept, dull sets and repetitive video designs


For all its amazing vocals, music and acting, production suffers from a confused one-track concept, dull sets and repetitive video designs.


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}For all its amazing vocals, music and acting, production suffers from a confused one-track concept, dull sets and repetitive video designs

For all its amazing vocals, music and acting, production suffers from a confused one-track concept, dull sets and repetitive video designs