A fantastical interpretation of Mozart's The Magic Flute by Berlin’s Komische Oper has its New Zealand debut in the Auckland Arts Festival in March.
The Magic Flute Photo: Iko Freese
Since its premiere in Berlin in 2012, the fantastically fun contemporary production has blown audiences away, won international awards and played to over half a million people around the world.
The Magic Flute is co-directed by Komische Oper’s Artistic Director Barrie Kosky and Suzanne Andrade and animator Paul Barritt from British theatre company 1927.
The style evokes the silent film era and early animated cartoons, and features live singers interacting with grand-scale, animated tableaux in a unique blend of German expressionism and British humour.
To stage the large-scale event at Auckland Arts Festival, a cast and crew of over 120 people are coming to Aotearoa.
Barrie Kosky is the visionary Australian who has run Berlin’s Komische Oper since 2012; he says opera companies need to take more risks if the art form is to flourish.
Eva Radich spoke to animator Paul Barritt, one of the founders of 1927.
