'Flute' presents Mozart in English

The question of one person's fondness or abhorrence for opera is about as subjective as it gets. However, the School of Music is by no means sitting back and leaving audience response to chance when it comes to this year's Spring Opera. The work chosen for this weekend's production at the Mendelssohn is "The Magic Flute," one of the all-time audience favorites and the masterpiece of Mozart's career as a composer.

The School of Music has enlisted Kenneth Kiesler as the opera's musical director. Kiesler, who traditionally conducts the University Symphony Orchestra in the Fall Opera, is handling the spring production at the special request of Music Dean Paul Boylan.

Courtesy of David Smith Photography Rebekah Nye and Michael Ryan star in "The Magic Flute."

As a result, Kiesler has had to develop a working relationship with an entirely new orchestra, the 38-piece University Philharmonic. "Perhaps this is a challenge with any Mozart" piece, Kiesler said, "But you have to get everyone on the same page, stylistically."

"Over the course of 200 years, so many different approaches have sprung up to deal with Mozart's music," Kiesler said. He is seeking to attain a more basic interpretation of the score, without the adornments that have curried popularity with Mozart's many interpreters.

This is in keeping with the artistic plan for all aspects of the production. Staged by Joshua Major on a minimalist, abstract set, the burden of the performances will rest squarely with the 40 singers, graduate and undergrad students, in the cast, as well as the students in the Philharmonic.

"The Magic Flute" is essentially a comedy, although it contains many more serious themes and elevated moments. It essentially follows the quest of the heroic, intellectual Prince Tamino, along with his earthy companion Papageno, to rescue the beautiful princess from the captivity of the High Priest. Tamino embarks on this adventure to prove his love for the princess to her mother, the Queen of the Night.

Kiesler has conducted a wide range of operas, as well as other works by Mozart, but this is his first Mozart opera since his graduate student days.

"Mozart has ways of telling you what he means, (through) hidden messages," he explained. "Over time, you grow sensitive to them ... (and) come to realize that every note he ever wrote is operatic."

With an obvious relish for the time he has spent working with this opera, Kiesler is nonetheless frank about the more practical demands of his job. He emphasized the blending of many creative perspectives in operatic interpretation.

These include those of Kiesler, Major, the singers in the cast, scenic designer Gary Decker, costume designer Lisa Parkel (a University graduate student), and lighting designer Justin Burleson, an undergrad theatre major.

"In the end, an opera is the composite of all these views put together," Kiesler concluded.

Tickets for "The Magic Flute" are $18 and $14, or $7 for students (limit 2 per ID), and are available at the League Ticket Office. For more info, call

(734) 764-0450.

03-24-99