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The first opera to grace the stage at the Desautels Concert Hall debuts this week as the University of Manitoba Opera Theatre presents The Magic Flute.
Directed by faculty member Tracy Dahl and conducted by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s RBC Assistant Conductor Monica Chen, the class shares Mozart’s timeless score with several modern twists. That includes updating the opera’s spoken words to reflect the 21st century, and to eliminate some of the more dated words in the dialogue.
This work was led by both the directorial team and the students, including Christopher Dunn, who plays the benevolent leader Sarastro in the production. “It’s been incredible to bring something that can definitely be problematic in its original format at times, and allow people to have a have a much easier gateway in.”
“There's television references, there's breaking the fourth wall a whole bunch. It's a way funnier show than tragic. And I think that was the big takeaway and a lot of fun from the process.”
Changing back and forth between sung German words and spoken English dialogue is challenge enough for anyone, but for Dariyan Dubik, who plays the charming (if slightly slow on the uptake) birdcatcher Papageno, the difficulty takes on an added dimension.
“I mean, the truth is he doesn't shut up for five minutes in the opera, so there's just a lot of learning to do,” says Dubik after a dress rehearsal. “As well, he's very physical in his nature. It's physically challenging as well as technically challenging.”
“I’ve really had to just throw myself in,” Dubik continues. “There was a lot of telling myself that it doesn’t matter if I look dumb as I'm flopping around on the ground and making large gestures and screeching at the top of my lungs with the spoken dialogue.”
Those large gestures and screeches will be sure to translate well on the stage of the brand-new Desautels Concert Hall, which features all the amenities of a professional stage, including an orchestra pit.
With all of the excitement of a new stage, the new performing experience is not one without challenges. “There’s just a lot of stuff that's up in the air,” Dubik explains. “One of our dialogues is based solely around whether or not we can get a lighting effect to happen. So we don't know if that's going to happen. It’ll be a great and fun challenge.”
That sentiment is echoed by soprano Diana Rockwell, who appears as the First Lady in the opera’s opening moments, but she adds that the excitement ultimately triumphs over the nerves of a new space. “As soon as it got out of the practice room and you're on stage and you're having fun with people in rehearsal and it's on its feet, it's so much easier to sing because it's meant to be performed. It's meant to be acted. It's meant to be staged in a way that makes it human and makes it real.”
Rockwell also hopes that audiences leave the hall having taken the timeless quality of opera’s layered beauty and cultural relevance with them. “It rings true even in 2024 when this is written in the 1700s that opera can be for everyone, and it can speak to everyone in different ways.”
The Magic Flute runs November 6th and 7th at the Desautels Concert Hall at the University of Manitoba. For more information, you can visit the Desautels Faculty of Music website.