Critics Pick

The Magic Flute

Venue: War Memorial Opera House
Date: Wed June 27, 2012 7:30pm
City: San Francisco
Price Range: $24 - $221
Tickets: (415) 864-3330

San Francisco Opera

Endlessly inventive, charmingly fantastical and utterly unique, Mozart’s final opera is a profound yet lighthearted tale of romantic love, spiritual transcendence and the beguiling art of birdcatching. The internationally acclaimed ensemble cast is led by Rory Macdonald, an exciting young conductor with “a superb natural physical talent” (MusicalCriticism.com), and includes lyric tenor Alek Shrader, a “stylish, vivid” Mozartian (The New York Times); Heidi Stober, a soprano with “rare vivacity of voice and personality” (Houston Chronicle); Nathan Gunn, “a singer with unmistakable star power” (Opera News); Kristinn Sigmundsson, lauded for his performance in San Francisco Opera’s Der Rosenkavalier (2007); and, in the opera’s most virtuoso role, Russian soprano Albina Shagimuratova, who is “in demand everywhere as The Queen of the Night” (The New York Times). In a new production by visual artist Jun Kaneko and sung in English, The Magic Flute is perfect for the whole family.

View a video by NET Nebraska about production designer Jun Kaneko and his work; including interview footage with the artist.

Sung in English with English supertitles
Approximate running time: 3 hours, 30 minutes including one intermission