Yorkshire

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="640" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/The-Magic-Flute-at-Opera-North-960x600px-8-1024x640.jpg" alt="The Magic flute opera north Anna Dennis as the Queen of the Night with Egor Zhuravskii as Tamino © Tristram Kenton " class="wp-image-1616" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/The-Magic-Flute-at-Opera-North-960x600px-8-1024x640.jpg 1024w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/The-Magic-Flute-at-Opera-North-960x600px-8-300x188.jpg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/The-Magic-Flute-at-Opera-North-960x600px-8-768x480.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/The-Magic-Flute-at-Opera-North-960x600px-8.jpg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Anna Dennis as the Queen of the Night with Egor Zhuravskii as Tamino © Tristram Kenton</figcaption></figure>



At a time when opera funding is being hacked and younger audiences seem increasingly attracted to the ease of musical theatre, it’s heartening to see <a href="https://www.operanorth.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Opera Nort</a><a href="https://www.operanorth.co.uk/whats-on/the-magic-flute-2024/?utm_source=muddystilettos&amp;utm_medium=display&amp;utm_campaign=flute" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">h</a> not only leaning into the issue but coming out fighting with this charming production of Mozart’s ultimate crowd pleaser <a href="https://www.operanorth.co.uk/whats-on/the-magic-flute-2024/?utm_source=muddystilettos&amp;utm_medium=display&amp;utm_campaign=flute" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Magic Flute</a>. The opera premiered in 1791 in Vienna, not at the city’s main theatre but at the suburban Freihaus-Theater auf der Wiedentheatre to appeal to the masses, and that idea of its broad appeal still stands – The Magic Flute is a fairy tale comedy and a singspiel (with both singing and spoken word), and is often touted as a great ‘entry’ opera for beginners or children.



The libretto tells the story of Pamina, daughter of the Queen of the Night, who has been abducted and held prisoner the evil Sarastro. Meanwhie a foreign prince, Tamino, is rescued by from an enormous monster by three mysterious women who give him a picture of Pamina, and he falls instantly in love, vowing to rescue her. Cue a magic flute, some magic bells, a reluctant assistant in bird-catcher Papageno and a two Act battle between the forces of dark and light.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="938" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/The-Magic-Flute-at-Opera-North-960x600px-11.jpg" alt="The Magic flute opera north ladies on stage with monster " class="wp-image-1619" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/The-Magic-Flute-at-Opera-North-960x600px-11.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/The-Magic-Flute-at-Opera-North-960x600px-11-300x188.jpg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/The-Magic-Flute-at-Opera-North-960x600px-11-1024x640.jpg 1024w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/The-Magic-Flute-at-Opera-North-960x600px-11-768x480.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Kathryn Sharpe as Second Lady, Egor Zhuravskii as Tamino, Charlie Drummond as First Lady, and Hazel Croft as Third Lady © Tristram Kenton</figcaption></figure>



Sung in English with subtitles easily seen on both sides of the stage along with two sign interpreters for accessibility (themselves occasionally integrated into the production, a cute touch), The Magic Flute’s overture is played against an introductory scene that shows a young girl going to bed while her father holds a dinner party. During the party, a man enters her room uninvited, her mother gatecrashes the gathering and tries to gain access to her daughter and all these characters re-emerge in her ‘dream’ of The Magic Flute, a motif that sees its conclusion when little girl and her ‘father figure’ Sarastro are united on stage at the end of the opera.



No modern audience watching The Magic Flute will avoid wincing at some of its tropes on women’s wiles and weaknesses – well, that’s 1791 for you &#8211; but this production goes some way to challenging them with the Queen of the Night’s trio of fabulous, gung-ho, light sabre-wielding servants, and the serious Handmaid’s Tale dress of the nuns who are second class citizens in Sarastro oppressive ‘brotherhood’.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="960" height="600" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/VnEFA.jpeg" alt="The Magic flute opera north three ladies on bed with prince underneath bed " class="wp-image-1613" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/VnEFA.jpeg 960w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/VnEFA-300x188.jpeg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/VnEFA-768x480.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Katie Sharpe as Second Lady, Egor Zhuravskii as Tamino, Hazel Croft as Third Lady and Charlie Drummond as First Lady © Tristram Kenton</figcaption></figure>



Act One rollicks along with Egor Zhuravskii strong as the Tamino, a rich tenor who is convincing as a handsome prince, with soprano Claire Lees is a sweet, guileless Pamina, all purity of tone and expressive acting. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="938" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/The-Magic-Flute-at-Opera-North-960x600px-6.jpg" alt="The Magic flute opera north woman on bed reading with prince puling the sheet " class="wp-image-1618" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/The-Magic-Flute-at-Opera-North-960x600px-6.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/The-Magic-Flute-at-Opera-North-960x600px-6-300x188.jpg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/The-Magic-Flute-at-Opera-North-960x600px-6-1024x640.jpg 1024w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/The-Magic-Flute-at-Opera-North-960x600px-6-768x480.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Hazel Croft as Third Lady, Katie Sharpe as Second Lady, Claire Lees as Pamina, Charlie Drummond as First Lady and Egor Zhuravskii as Tamino © Tristram Kenton</figcaption></figure>



Much of the humour in The Magic Flute comes via bird-catcher Papageno, performed with real charm and comic timing by bass-baritone&nbsp;<a href="https://bachtrack.com/performer/emyr-wyn-jones">Emyr Wyn Jones</a> but the fireworks in this production belong to Anna Dennis’ Queen of the Night and her effortless Act 2 aria as she rages against her daughter to kill Sarastro. Scaling two octaves and effortlessly hits the famous high Fs, she deserved her ‘bravo’ and applause from the audience.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="960" height="696" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/Mh81v.jpeg" alt="The Magic flute opera north papagena and papageno laughing, woman in red dress " class="wp-image-1615" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/Mh81v.jpeg 960w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/Mh81v-300x218.jpeg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/Mh81v-768x557.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Pasquale Orchard as Papagena and Emyr Wyn Jones as Papageno © Tristram Kenton</figcaption></figure>



A sonorous Msimelelo Mbali as Sarastro has a beautiful tone but needed more power on the night I visited at The Lowry in Mancheste, and the ‘three boys’, children sent to assist Tamino and Papageno went a little out of tempo at times, but these are small skirmishes in what was a vibrant and energetic production that does much to underline Opera North’s desire to make opera accessible to all. 



To that end, it’s also worth knowing that there are 6pm start times for some performances and English subtitles at all performances, plus <a href="https://www.operanorth.co.uk/access/signed-performances/">sign-interpretation</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.operanorth.co.uk/access/audio-described-performances/">audio description</a>&nbsp;and touch tours on selected dates. No excuse not to go and take your kids to experience the magic to – there’s even a shorter ‘Lite’ matinée version for families on Thurs 20 Feb at 2.30pm!



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="938" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/The-Magic-Flute-at-Opera-North-960x600px-3.jpg" alt="The Magic flute opera north Sarastro man in white on stage with smoke " class="wp-image-1617" style="aspect-ratio:1.6;width:640px;height:auto" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/The-Magic-Flute-at-Opera-North-960x600px-3.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/The-Magic-Flute-at-Opera-North-960x600px-3-300x188.jpg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/The-Magic-Flute-at-Opera-North-960x600px-3-1024x640.jpg 1024w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/01/The-Magic-Flute-at-Opera-North-960x600px-3-768x480.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Msimelelo Mbali as Sarastro ©&nbsp;Tristram Kenton</figcaption></figure>



‘<a href="https://www.operanorth.co.uk/whats-on/the-magic-flute-2024/?utm_source=muddystilettos&amp;utm_medium=display&amp;utm_campaign=flute" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Magic Flute</a>’ performs at Leeds Grand Theatre from 12 Feb – 22 Feb 2025. 46 New Briggate, Leeds LS1 6NU and Hull New Theatre from 27-29 March 2025. 



Tickets from £16. £10 tickets for <a href="https://www.operanorth.co.uk/your-visit/under30s/">Under 30s</a> and students, and free tickets for 16- to 20-year-olds.

Review: ‘The Magic Flute’, Opera North

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