English conductor Jane Glover will make her Met debut on December 16 leading the company's holiday presentation, an abridged, English-language production of Mozart's The Magic Flute, directed by Julie Taymor. The 100-minute version of Taymor's popular staging of the opera will star Alek Shrader as the brave prince Tamino; Heidi Stober as Pamina, the princess he must rescue; Eric Owens as the mysterious Sarastro; Shenyang as the Speaker; and Nathan Gunn as the hapless bird-catcher Papageno. Albina Shagimuratova and Kathryn Lewek will alternate in the role of Pamina's vindictive mother, the Queen of the Night. The Magic Flute launched the recent Met tradition of presenting a family-oriented production each holiday season, with sharply discounted tickets and two special weekday matinee performances. Scroll down for a sneak peek at the production!
Jane Glover is one of the world's leading Mozart specialists. Her recent performances of his operas have included La Clemenza di Tito at Chicago Opera Theater, Don Giovanni at Opera Theater of St. Louis, and Lucio Silla at Bordeaux Opera. This summer, she will conduct Die Zauberflöte at Opera Theater of St. Louis. Last season, she conducted a semi-staged performance of Gluck's Armide,a presentation of the Met Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program in partnership with The Juilliard School. She is the music director of Chicago's Music of the Baroque ensemble, the artistic director of opera for London's Royal Academy of Music, and the author of the 2005 book Mozart's Women: His Family, His Friends, His Music.
Heidi Stober made her Met debut in 2011 as Gretel in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel. She has sung Pamina with both San Francisco Opera and Deutsche Oper Berlin. Her other performances this season include both Magnolia in Show Boat and Nannetta in Verdi's Falstaff at San Francisco Opera; Adina in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and Susanna in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at Deutsche Oper Berlin; and Ada Leverson in the world premiere of Theodore Morrison's Oscar at Santa Fe Opera.
Albina Shagimuratova made her Met debut in 2010 as the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte. She has sung the Queen of the Night with numerous opera companies around the world, including San Francisco Opera; Los Angeles Opera; La Scala; the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; the Vienna, Bavarian, and Hamburg State Operas; the Salzburg Festival; and Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu. This season she also sings the title role in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at Los Angeles Opera and La Scala.
Kathryn Lewek has sung the Queen of the Night with Deutsche Oper Berlin, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Toulon Opera, and the Bregenz Festival. Later this season, she will sing the role at Washington National Opera. Her other recent roles have included Jessica in André Tchaikowsky's Der Kaufmann von Venedig, an adaptation of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, at the Bregenz Festival; Zerlina in Don Giovanni at Ohio's Toledo Opera; and Nicoletta in Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges at Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Alek Shrader first appeared at the Met as a winner of the 2007 National Council Auditions, a competition documented in Susan Froemke's film The Audition. He made his company debut last season in the Met premiere of Thomas Adès's The Tempest, in which he sang the role of Ferdinand. Last winter, he starred as Count Almaviva in the Met premiere of the abridged, English-language holiday staging of Rossini's The Barber of Seville. He has sung Tamino with San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Bavarian State Opera, and Bordeaux Opera.
Nathan Gunn sang Papageno at the Met for the first time in 2006 and reprised the role here in three subsequent seasons. Last season, he added a new role to his Met repertory as Raimbaud in Rossini's Le Comte Ory. A graduate of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, his previous appearances with the company include the title role in Britten's Billy Budd, Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte, Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette, and Clyde Griffiths in the world premiere of Tobias Picker's An American Tragedy. He has recently sung Papageno with Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Opera, and the Ravinia Festival.
Eric Owens made his Met debut in 2008 as General Leslie Groves in the company premiere of John Adams's Doctor Atomic. Later that season, he made his company role debut as Sarastro in The Magic Flute. In 2010, 2011, and 2012, he sang his first-ever performances of Alberich in the new production premieres of Das Rheingold, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung, three of the four operas in Wagner's epic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. This season, he sings Alberich with Vienna State Opera and Deutsche Oper Berlin; the Water-Sprite in Dvo?ák's Rusalka with Lyric Opera Chicago; and the title role in Handel's Hercules with Canadian Opera Company.
Shenyang, a graduate of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, made his company debut in 2009 as Masetto in Don Giovanni. In subsequent Met seasons, he has sung Colline in Puccini's La Bohème and Garibaldo in Handel'sRodelinda. Also this season, he performs in concerts with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic, Gianluigi Gelmetti and the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic, and Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony.
The December 28 performance will feature Glover conducting Mary Dunleavy as Pamina, Lewek as Queen of the Night, Matthew Plenk as Tamino, John Moore as Papageno, Julien Robbins as the Speaker, and Owens as Sarastro.
The Magic Flute Radio Broadcasts: The December 16 opening performance of The Magic Flute will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Channel 74, as will the performances on December 24 and January 4. The December 16 performance will also be streamed live on the Met's website, www.metopera.org. The January 4 performance will be broadcast live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.
For more information on this season's performances of The Magic Flute, please visit the Met's website at www.metopera.org.
Photo Credit: Ken Howard and Cory Weaver/Metropolitan Opera
Nathan Gunn (left) as Papageno
Nathan Gunn as Papageno
Nathan Gunn as Papageno
A scene from the abridged, English-language holiday presentation of Mozart's THE MAGIC FLUTE
Eric Owens as Sarastro
Nathan Gunn as Papageno
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