Review: MOZART’S THE MAGIC FLUTE at The Metropolitan Opera

As the houselights dim at the Metropolitan Opera, the Julie Taymor–directed The Magic Flute transports viewers into a buoyant and kaleidoscopic fairy-tale dreamworld. This abridged, English-language production is a visually sumptuous version of Mozart's singspiel bathed in bold primary colors, shaped by ingenious Masonic-inspired geometric staging, and animated by exquisite puppetry.  

Those familiar with the Taymor, the Tony Award–winning director of Broadway’s The Lion King, know that her ability to weave the elements of production into a breathtaking and evocative work of art is singular.  

As such, Taymor’s production of The Magic Flute dazzles: intentional lighting cues, thoughtful costume choices, and gorgeous vocal and orchestral performance all in service of a story about duality: good versus evil, naivety versus maturity, and the ultimate dance between light and darkness.

Company Credits

Conductor: Erina Yashima (Debut)
Production: Julie Taymor
Set Designer: George Tsypin
Costume Designer: Julie Taymor
Lighting Designer: Donald Holder
Puppet Designers: Julie Taymor & Michael Curry
Choreographer: Mark Dendy
English Adaptation: J.D. McClatchy
Revival Stage Director: Eric Sean Fogel
Chorus Director: Tilman Michael
Music Director: Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Principal Guest Conductor: Daniele Rustioni

Cast (rotating see performers based on date here).
 

At the heart of this production lies a thoughtful artistic ethos articulated through J.D. McClatchy’s English adaptation. As McClatchy writes in the program, The Magic Flute’s dreamlike shifts are not inconsistencies but an "inner logic," a world threaded by the elemental pull between chaos and reason. Taymor embraces that philosophy completely, with the fairy-tale setting becoming a playground for contrasts: light against shadow, geometry against fluidity, the corporeal against the mystical.

This is a production that understands its lineage and the young audiences it often attracts. It honors the childlike sense of wonder in all of us, and the result is thrilling.  Sitting in the audience, you could hear children and adults alike unable to hold in their exclamations: “oh!” “look!” “wow!” sprinkled over the orchestra’s music as the set revealed new surprises with each scene change.

At the center of Taymor’s staging is an elegant visual language built on the interplay of color and geometry. Scenes rotate manually to reveal different worlds, seemingly anchored by a portal in the form of a square, circle, or triangle. These shapes recur everywhere: in priestly looking costumes, in structural architecture, and in the subtle coded vocabulary of light.

Donald Holder’s lighting design is particularly exceptional. Scenes glow with saturated primary colors, cool blues and celestial yellow evoking clarity and hope versus a deep, urgent red signifying danger or moral distortion. When the Queen of the Night sweeps onto the stage, she is engulfed in red light crashing against her white robes as a visual shorthand for fury and chaos. 

Shadow play adds yet another dimension: silhouettes of birds and bird keepers flickering within the portal and iridescent back-lit sheer draped fabric gives the stage a layered, storybook dynamism. Even the costumes become projection surfaces, catching sprinkles of light and refracting it back into the audience in a mirror ball fashion. One of the most magical staging feats occurs when Papageno encounters a seemingly floating table. Through immaculate puppetry, blocking, and lighting, his favorite foods, such as ice cream, lobster, & pasta, appear to dance above him before vanishing into darkness once devoured. It is pure theatrical delight, a reminder of how Taymor’s team integrates stage mechanics into narrative joy.

Julie Taymor’s costuming is a triumph of character interpretation. Texture, design, and color choices hint at the character’s deeper identity:

• Sarastro and his court are dressed in cubist geometric robes and structured silhouettes that evoke order, reason, and monastic solemnity.
   
• The Queen of the Night, by contrast, appears first in white, which is an inspired choice that allows her billowing robes to absorb the red light in a way that suggests her fiery rage within which may not be outwardly shown quite yet. When she later reappears in crimson garments, the dramatic reveal confirms her descent into villainy.
   
• Papageno and Papagena mirror each other in leafy greens, yellows, and oranges, with ornate cage-like accessories adorning them at first, later freed as they find one another, shedding their constraints in a symbolic flourish of romantic liberation.
   
• The Three Ladies’ heads, perched whimsically atop their costumes and removable for impact, lend their scenes a surreal, but comedic edge.
   
• Monostatos, with his scandalous peekaboo undercoat gag, delivers some of the production’s biggest laughs with costuming becoming a vehicle for punchline delivery.

Choreographer Mark Dendy balances regimented, almost ecclesiastical movement for Sarastro’s court with jubilant, frolicking dances once the magic flute begins its enchantment. Puppet bears charmingly billow, flamingo dancers twirl en pointe (some atop stilts, heightening the spectacle), and it feels as though a pop-up fairytale book has come to life before us. 

The puppetry (which makes this production exceptionally enticing for younger theatre goers, but certainly for those of all ages) is breathtaking. Serpents float like living ribbons, winged creatures glide across the stage, and towering soldier-puppets with flame-lit heads blur the boundary between prop and performer. 

The cast delivers across the board.  While the performers for The Magic Flute will depend upon the performance date (check here for performers for each date), the December 11th show’s stand out performers included:

Aigul Khismatullina (Queen of the Night) electrifying, technically assured, and dramatically irresistible. Her stratospheric coloratura feels both effortless and emotionally charged, making her villainy almost temptingly charismatic.

Joshua Blue (Tamino) brings emotional breadth, moving from lovestruck urgency to aching restraint during the trials that forbid him from speaking to Pamina.

Erin Morley (Pamina) sings with crystalline clarity and genuine heartbreak, particularly in the confrontation where she pleads for Tamino’s acknowledgment.

Joshua Hopkins (Papageno) supplies the evening’s comedic heartbeat. His duet with Maureen McKay (Papagena) is a charming explosion of chemistry and clowning.

The orchestra, under the debut baton of Erina Yashima, is stunning.

This abridged version of The Magic Flute is simply radiant, and an ideal holiday outing for the family. 

However, families should note two content considerations:

• there is a brief appearance of a stylized noose hanging from a tree onstage, a suggestive reference to a potential suicide by hanging; 

• although abridged, the 90-minute running time may be best suited to children with slightly longer attention spans.

For anyone seeking magic this holiday season, this production offers it in abundance.