Pamina (Cat Richmond, front) and Papageno (Gavin Waid) practice on big wheels for a skate park scene.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart contacted me the other night. Not in a vision! That would be goofy. No, it was by Ouija board.
He told me that as he lay dying in 1791, “I prayed that a prequel to my last work, The Magic Flute, would someday be written and performed in Wisconsin.”
He added, “Preferably in Oconomowoc.”
But fate has other plans, and instead offers Fresco Opera Theatre’s world premiere of Queen of the Night, April 5-8 at the Madison Masonic Temple, 301 Wisconsin Ave.
“This is by far not the most crazy thing we’ve done,” says Fresco’s artistic director, Melanie Cain. And that’s understandable for a troupe that’s done a Star Wars opera and annually schedules a summer performance series in residential garages. (After spring, look forward to a pastiche Cinderella, portraying the evil stepmother’s family as Kardashians.)
When Fresco launched in 2010, it was famously described (by me) as an opera that P.T. Barnum would create for Lady Gaga: fast, sexy, short and as snarky as possible.
“We’re really always trying to gain new audiences for opera,” says Cain. “It’s important for people to know you don’t have to have seen The Magic Flute to enjoy Queen of the Night. It really is the beginning of the story.” But, if you do know the story, Cain adds, “things will fall into place. You’ll go, ‘Ah! That’s where that comes from.’”
Sources for the story of The Magic Flute have long baffled scholars. In general, the folk opera appears to be based on fairy tales and medieval ballads. It follows the iconic plot of a traveler overcoming challenge.
Still, Cain admits to feeling confused about who the characters were. “There’s really no backstory that Mozart gives to us. Where did Pamina and Tamino and all these people come from?”
So a year and a half ago, Fresco set about crafting a prequel with composer Jordan Jenkins, lyricist Amy Quan Barry and librettist Andrew Ravenscroft. Fresco immediately tapped vocal powerhouse Caitlin Cisler, claiming the artist even before, coincidentally, she was cast by Madison Opera in the same queenly Flute role.
One of the city’s most interesting and underused venues will serve as Fresco’s showcase, with a live chamber ensemble. The downtown Masonic Temple is an arena in miniature, perfect for inventive staging.
“Our concept is a skate park meets primal space” says Cain. “We’re not really sitting in any era. It’s this idea that these characters can pull from all eras. There will be people on skateboards, and scooters.”
Editor's note: Two errors were corrected in the final quote from artistic director Melanie Cain. The opera is set in skate park, not a state park. And the opera uses scooters; no scene takes place in a Hooters restaurant.
