Above: Sarastro ~ costume sketch
Author: Oberon
Saturday January 3, 2026 matinee – I ended 2025 with an all-Mozart concert and started 2026 today with a matinee of Julie Taymor’s MAGIC FLUTE at The Met. This afternoon’s cast was different from the one I attended 2 weeks ago, and a conductor new to me was on the podium.
It was not a happy afternoon at the Met. After several days of cold, dry weather, some of the voices seemed out of sorts. The 12:00 noon start time didn’t help matters. The house was packed, and parents made little attempt keep their small children from talking loudly during the music.
The conducting of Erina Yashima was sure and steady; as the overture and other orchestral passages are cut, it’s not easy to form an impression of her work from this production. She did seem to respect the voices, which is a good thing.
The opening arias of Tamino and Queen of the Night are so pared down that Joshua Blue and Aigul Khismatullina couldn’t really get their voices in gear before their arias ended. Mr. Blue did some very fine singing as the afternoon progressed, especially in his scene with the magnificently sung Speaker of Le Bu. Ms. Khismatullina’s vengeance aria later in the show was not perfect, but it had the right dramatic feel.
Of the Three Ladies, Emily Treigle was of particular interest to me, as she is a third-generation opera singer: her mom is soprano Phyllis Treigle, and her grandfather was the inimitable Norman Treigle, both of whom sang at New York City Opera during its heyday. Emily’s sidekicks today were soprano Kathleen O’Mara (a delightful Berta in BARBIERE last season) and Daryl Freedman. All three have fine voices, though somehow their blend was not always persuasive. The opera’s other trio, the Genii (here called Spirits), were vocally pallid today.
Erin Morley’s Pamina had some of her trademark beauty of phrasing and expression, though this character – more than any other – is robbed of so many vocal possibilities in this reduced scoring that she becomes a cipher.
The music of Monastatos is so severely trimmed down that tenor Zhengyi Bai had little opportunity to actually sing, though in the final scene where the Queen and her Ladies stage an assault on the Temple, his voice was clear and fine.
Joshua Hopkins as Papageno was first-rate: engaging at every moment, and with his voice warm and expressive. He and the ever-impressive basso Matthew Rose as Sarastro – along with Le Bu’s awesome Speaker – gave the afternoon its finest singing.
I’d planned to visit the stage door at the end, but the frigid dry air blowing thru the tunnel decided me to head home and have some tea and hot soup instead.
I’ve always attended this mini-MAGIC FLUTE more than once each season since it entered the Met repertory; it offers a fine opportunity to check out many voices in a 90-minute setting. But today I realized that the magic is not always palpable. The Met now has a truly engaging and meaningful ZAUBERFLOETE, which I hope will be in the repertoire again in the next two or three seasons. Unless there’s some irresistible casting in the Taymor next Yuletide, I think I’ve seen it for the last time today.
~ Oberon
Oberon's Glade 