Sin City Opera’s ‘Magic Flute’ a dazzling experience
My magical journey to see the Zappos-sponsored production of Sin City Opera’s “The Magic Flute on Fremont Street” in downtown Las Vegas began when I arrived beneath the giant mechanical praying mantis at the entry to Downtown Container Park. I was swept up into a warm-up session of aerobics with Mission: I’m Possible, an evangelical runners group that meets there each Thursday before a run to The Smith Center and back. We stretched our limbs to the booming spouts of flame from the monster mantis.
Making my way through the sparkling park, I found the open-air stage, and several people were already sprawled on picnic blankets on the grass. I joined a more sedate group at a cafe table and was promptly treated to cupcakes. Great views could have been had from the balconies of either bar flanking the stage, the Oak and Ivy or the Perch.
No attempt was made to create a set on the bare stage, but the setting itself provided a charming ambiance. The “orchestra” consisted of two keyboardists accompanying a recorded music track, but they held up their end quite well despite one of them having his sheaf of music blown away by the wind. Other technical glitches included the inevitable microphone problems that hardly fazed this ensemble of poised and professional singers. The opera is performed in understandable English. (Thank you, Sin City Opera, I’m so tired of reading supertitles.)
Alex Mendoza was the opera’s handsome romantic hero, Tamino, played here as a Vegas magician. Though early in the opera his voice sounded rough in his upper range, he had more than recovered by the end for his lovely duet with Pamina. Athena Mentes as a gym-bunny-turned-beauty-queen Pamina also seemed to have some initial issues with control, but like Mendoza, she soon had fully gained her rich soprano; as Pamina sings, “roses always grow with thrones.”
Ginger Lund-van Buuren was majestic as the Queen of Night, making her first appearance as a Blonde Venus in a showgirl’s golden feathers and little else. In Act 2, she changed to an appropriate red flame costume for the notoriously difficult aria, “Hell’s vengeance boils in my heart.” Her coloratura soprano proved quite capable. Her dramatic effect was perhaps enhanced by the mantis’ distant boom of flame.
Nathan van Arsdale gave a magisterial air to his Sarastro despite his appearance as an Elvis impersonator (you didn’t see that coming, did you?). His basso profondo had a thrillingly low vibrato. His nemesis, Monostatos was amusingly sung by tenor Eric Sepulveda as a modern devil in powder blue, the ultimate lounge lizard. Brian Myer was laugh-out-loud funny as Papageno in his silver lame jacket with zebra stripes and rainbow feathers. His rich baritone vocal performance was equal to his comic performance. Soprano Judy Lambino as his Papagena matched Myer’s vocal and comedic charm. Their “Pa Pa Pa” duet was delightful.
Dressed in slinky black as lounge singers, the Three Ladies — Marcia Ley, Stephanie Sadownik and Molly McLaughlin — were as lovely as their voices. Equally charming were the Three Spirits — Cheyna Alexander, Mary Aluas and Nicole Harris — dressed like cocktail waitresses escaped from Caesars. Aluas, director of Pink Tutu Ballet, also choreographed the opera’s Corps de Ballet — Shannon Yee, Chelsea Hupalowsky, Ashley Palacios and Jennifer Shuy — in delicate, cloudlike movements.
Jack Gaughan directed his marvelous cast to top-notch vocal performances, and artistic director Skip Galla perfectly captured the opera’s solemn silliness. Mozart and librettist Emanuel Schikaneder were both Freemasons, but the opera’s treatment of Masonic ritual seems more like a spoof of freemasonry than an allegory of the journey to enlightenment. Bill Smith and Magic Ventures provided the production’s magic tricks.
“The Magic Flute on Fremont Street” pulls out the old Las Vegas charm to create a magical evening under the stars, more dazzling than the Fremont Street Experience. And it’s free.
