The Silent Treatment

A reimagined Magic Flute uses 21st-century wizardry to dazzle and delight.

- Elizabeth Kerr

Since Barrie Kosky’s fabled version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute premiered at the Komische Oper Berlin in 2012, it has dazzled almost half a million people in 22 cities around the world. Now, it’s the turn of the Auckland Arts Festival, which has programmed the extravagant production to appeal to both opera newbies and adventurous aficionados.

Kosky whipped up his confection with the creative team at 1927, a UK theatre company that combines live performance, music, handmade animation and film. When Kosky proposed a collaboration on Flute, neither animator Paul Barritt nor director-performer Suzanne Andrade had ever seen an opera.

They apparently took some convincing, but judging by his past interviews, one suspects the fast-talking, innovative Australian-born Kosky is highly persuasive.

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