Walter Van Beirendonck designs costumes for Die Zauberflöte in Berlin

After a quarter of a century it was about time to take a new approach at Mozart’s DIE ZAU­BERFLÖTE ​ at the Staatoper Unter den Linden: The new production is staged by Yuval Sharon and is under the musical direction of Alondra de la Parra ​ – with the Staatskapelle Berlin as well as an outstanding cast featuring amongst others Kwangchul Youn, Julian Prégardien, Anna Prohaska, Florian Teichtmeister, Serena Sáenz Molinero and Tuuli Takala. The costumes are created by Belgian fashion designer Walter Van Beirendonck.

For 25 years, August Everding’s production of »The Magic Flute« has enchanted Staatsoper audiences of all ages. But now the time has come for Mozart’s complex masterpiece to be examined anew. And so American director Yuval Sharon carries away audiences to new worlds of images that are no less imaginative, yet aesthetically quite different from the previous production. At the heart of the production is the idea of a collage, analogous to that of Mozart’s music itself, oscillating constantly between the stylistic levels of the Singspiel and the opera seria. Sharon, together with stage designer Mimi Lien and Belgian fashion designer Walter Van Beirendonck, takes this variety as an occasion to approach Mozart’s opera in a creatively playful and above all colourful way.

The usual practice for operatic repertoires is to replace an older production with a new one. But alongside the new production of »The Magic Flute«, the Everding production – which is so important in sustaining the repertoire – is to remain on the programme, offering two different perspectives on the world’s most-performed German-language opera.

DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE
​Grand Opera in two acts (1791)
​Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Text by Emmanuel Schikaneder
​Première February 17th, playing until March 16th at the Staatsoper Berlin.
​More info www.staatsoper-berlin.de

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