There’s still some magic in that old flute

Opera has a lot working against it in our society. It's mostly singing, it's catered to audiences 300 years our senior and it's not even in English. The University of Northern Iowa School of Music broke down all these barriers Friday, injecting new life into Mozart's age-old masterpiece "The Magic Flute" in a performance worthy of the influential composer's 256th birthday.

The key to the show's contemporary success was the expansion of the roles of the three child-spirits. They served as our hero's guides in Mozart's text but became the audience's postmodern, self-referential guides to the show in UNI's version. The spirits poke fun at opera conventions, recap confusing moments for the audience and inject American cultural humor into the production, giving the Enlightenment piece a modern-day sheen.

Though the songs retained the original German — "Who really understands what singers are saying anyway?" one of the spirits asked — projected subtitles provided translation while the spirits hilariously decided the performers would speak English with a game of paper rock scissors — best-out-of-three, of course.

The English speech made room for clever additions of humor, from the lovesick, cowardly birdcatcher Papageno's brilliant line, "He said something lovey-dovey. In German," to references to appletinis and TV conventions ("Previously, on ‘The Magic Flute'").

These additions did nothing to overshadow the show's original text, which follows the honest and virtuous youth Tamino, played by Mackenzie Whitney, on a noble quest to find and rescue his destined lover, Pamina, played by Samantha Kantak, from the mysterious Sarastro, whose bass notes could only be sung with the force of John Hines, the only faculty member in the cast. At Tamino's side is the aforementioned buffoon Papageno, brought to life with foolish delight by Rhys Talbot's strong baritone.

Armed with the eponymous flute and magic bells, Tamino and Papageno arrive at Sarastro's temple to find Pamina in the careful hands of a religious order whose principles and initiation rituals evoke a Roman mystery cult or a freemason lodge. There they undergo the trials of initiation as Tamino faces temptation and danger to prove himself worthy of admission and marriage to Pamina, all while fighting off the evil and manipulative Queen of the Night and her agents.

The music really gives life to the tale, with incredible performances that demonstrate the entire human vocal range, from Sarastro's incredibly low tones to the evil queen's impossibly high notes gracing her famous second-act aria, sung with incredible accuracy and menace by Megan O'Brien. Members of UNI Opera and the Varsity Men's Glee Club filled out the ensemble, completing Mozart's beautiful and difficult sound. Rebecca Burkhardt ensured her pit orchestra got the recognition it deserved, poking her head out of the pit after warming up for each act to well-earned applause.

The show's set was deceptively simple. At first glance, it was comprised of only white walls and banners, but they proved to be blank canvases on which the opera's scenic locales were projected, resulting in an incredibly effective and efficient use of simple set pieces to immerse the audience in the location.

If I had any complaint about the show, it had to be the subtitles; though I was very grateful for them (I can only catch a few German words), they were often lagging behind the performers, or occasionally jumped ahead. The result at times cheapened an otherwise impressive and delightful experience.

Despite this issue, director Sandra Walden and company put on one heck of a show. Their creative liberties took an opera about enlightenment and the power of music and turned it into a playful production about music itself. Walden's postmodern gateway to opera earned its standing ovation and the delight of opera enthusiasts and casual viewers alike, proving there's still plenty of life left in Mozart's centuries-old masterpiece.