Volume 16 Number 3
May 1977

IN 1791, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s last opera, Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute), was performed in German at Vienna. The story of Tamino and Papageno was laid in Egypt, with a curious mixture of political satire, the symbolism of Freemasonry and naive humor.

Last month (April 22-30) the magic flute was played in the Arizona State University’s Music Theatre with a new world setting: The Temple of Isis became the Temple of the Sun, the backdrops were fantasies of the kivas, the three genii became three spirits with corn symbols, and the language was English.

John Stone Porter, associate producer for the Music Theatre’s Lyric Opera Theatre, originally staged one act of the opera at the University of Southern California with an "Indian" theme. During the following four years, he decided that this approach to Flute could only be designed by an Indian, preferably Hopi because the culture and religious beliefs of the Hopi closely parallel those depicted in the opera.

Last December, Dennis Numkena, a Hopi artist-architect in Phoenix, had a showing of paintings at the Heard Museum. Porter approached him with the idea (it seems Numkena is sort of a 20th century combination of Papageno and Tamino and loves fantasy), and commissioned him to design the settings and costumes. The designs arrived in late February, and the LOT staff fell to work, translating Numkena’s paintings and sketches into cloth and stage settings.

By any standard, the production was superior—the ASU students in the roles had good voices, and the university orchestra provided an excellent musical accompaniment as in all LOT performances. But to the sell-out audiences, the fantasy setting in Arizona’s mesa country was the drawing card, and they were not disappointed. Nurnkena’s backdrops (shown only in black and white in the accompanying photographs) were rich in color, and seemed to rise from the very depths of the underworld. The costumes, while very simple and not detailed as are Hopi ceremonial robes, were brilliant turquoise, green and red.

The production showed that basically good music and story lines can transcend time. As the program stated, the setting was of "distant lands and peoples long since past but not forgotten, where time and space are one, where good still triumphs over evil." (J. P. P.)