Mozart’s The Magic Flute

Saturday, January 22, 2022 at 7:30 PM Sunday, January 23, 2022 at 2:30 PM

Classics Series MOZART’S THE MAGIC FLUTE

JoAnn Falletta, conductor Hillman Opera Program at SUNY Fredonia School of Music Julie Newell, Stage Director Adam Luebke, Chorusmaster

TAMINO: Kyle van Schoonhoven* PAMINA: Danielle Beckvermit* PAPAGENO: Michael Hawk* QUEEN OF THE NIGHT: Lucia Flowers* SARASTRO: James Harrington** MONOSTATOS: Jordan Pitts* FIRST LADY: Mary Hangley* SECOND LADY: Gillian Riesen* THIRD LADY: Amanda Bottoms* PAPAGENA: Katherine Joslyn* FIRST SPIRIT: Abigail Brudz*** SECOND SPIRIT: Kay Steele*** THIRD SPIRIT: Erin Colaluca*** PRIEST: Michael Aiello*, ** ARMORED MEN: Robert Kleinertz* Shane Keyes *** SLAVES: Ross Wiley*** Daniel Barna*** Patrick Connolly***

MOZART/ English Translation by Andrew Porter

The Magic Flute Overture Act I 1.Introduction: "O help me!" [Tamino; Three Ladies] 2. Aria: "Oh, catching birds, that is my trade" [Papageno] 3. Aria: "Oh vision of enchanting grace!" [Tamino] 4. Recit. and Aria: Oh, have no fear, my noble youth!" [Queen of the Night] 5. Quintet: "Him! Him Him!" [Three Ladies, Tamino, Papageno] 6. Trio: "My little dove, you're mine again!" [Pamina, Monostatos, Papageno] 7. Duet: "The man who feels love's sweet emotion" [Pamina, Papageno] 8. Finale: "Thus far we've led you toward your goal" [Pamina, Tamino, Monostatos, Sarastro, Priest, Papageno, Chorus]

INTERMISSION

Act 2 9. March of the Priests 10. Aria con Coro: "O Isis and Osiris" [Sarastro, Chorus] 12. Quintet: "Why? Why? Why have you sought this dreadful place?" [Three Ladies, Tamino, Papageno] 13. Aria: "All men know that love's a fever” [Monostatos] 14. Aria: "You will avenge me, daughter!” [Queen of the Night] 15. Aria: "Within our holy temple, revenge” [Sarastro] 16. Trio: "Now for the second time we meet you" [Three Boys] 17. Aria "Ah, I feel my life is over” [Pamina] 18. Chorus: "O Isis and Osiris" [Priests] 19. Trio: "And shall we never meet again?" [Pamina, Tamino, Sarastro] 20. Aria: "O maiden come to join me" [Papageno] 21. Finale: "Bright dawn is heralding the morning" [Queen of the Night, Pamina, Papagena, Three Boys, Three Ladies, Tamino. Monostatos, Sarastro, Papageno, Chorus

* Fredonia alumnus ** Fredonia School of Music Voice Faculty member *** Current Fredonia School of Music student

Learn about this program from the conductor and guest artists at Musically Speaking, one hour prior to the start of Saturday’s and Sunday’s concert. Patrons are asked to turn off all electronic devices. The use of cameras and recording devices is strictly prohibited.

HILLMAN OPERA PROGRAM

JULIE NEWELL, STAGE DIRECTOR

The Hillman Opera has been produced annually at SUNY Fredonia for over 60 years. Beginning in 1957, the opera program is the namesake of Jessie Hillman, one of the formative professors of the Fredonia School of Music, beginning her tenure in the late 19th century. In its early years, the Hillman Opera served as a marquis event to draw attention to the building of a scholarship endowment for music students. In these earliest productions, community members and students combined forces to build sets and sew costumes in support of the training of young singers and orchestral students by professors. The annual Hillman Opera, while continuing to draw attention to the scholarship campaign of the Hillman Memorial Music Association, has expanded into a core element of the Voice Area and Orchestra curricula, as well as providing unique, professional-level opportunities for students in the Department of Theatre and Dance in scenic, lighting, costume, makeup, and sound design. The Hillman Opera has served as the training ground for generations of developing operatic artists who have gone on to significant national and international careers in the field of opera as well as developing educators who share their experience in, and love for, opera with students of all ages. The Hillman Memorial Music Association promotes community appreciation of music through not only the annual opera, but also through recitals, concerts, and masterclasses presented by guest artists and clinicians. The SUNY Fredonia School of Music and the Hillman Memorial Music Association are honored to have the opportunity to collaborate with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Maestro JoAnn Falletta in the special presentation of Mozart’s treasured masterpiece, The Magic Flute.

Julie Newell is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Voice and Opera at the SUNY Fredonia School of Music. She is a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creativity, the SUNY Research Foundation Award for Excellence, and the SUNY Alumni Achievement Award. Her 30-year performance career includes multiple performances at New York’s Lincoln Center, including world premier operas and concert works by Vivaldi and Menotti. Her operatic and concert performances include the major operatic heroines and numerous oratorios and solo repertoire including, among many, Puccini heroines Madama Butterfly and Mimi in La Boheme, Verdi heroines Desdemona in Otello and Gilda in Rigoletto, Mozart leading ladies Fiordiligi in Cosi Osi Fan Tutte, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, and Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze Di Figaro, as well as Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, and Britten’s War Requiem, to name only a few. Julie has shared the stage with such notable artists as Sherrill Milnes, Jerome Hines, David Zinman, and Lynn Redgrave. As an operatic performer, she is a recipient of performance grants from the William Matheus Sullivan Foundation and OPERA America. Her many solo appearances with the Buffalo Philharmonic began in 1991 under the baton of Maximiano Valdés in the role of Pamina in The Magic Flute, a staged production in 22

collaboration with the Greater Buffalo Opera Company, with performances in Kleinhans Music Hall. Additional Buffalo Philharmonic performances have included solo appearances in Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, J.S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Mozart’s Requiem, and Poulenc’s Gloria. In 2019, Julie served as Stage Director for the Buffalo Philharmonic presentation of Carmen. During the 2020-2021 season, Ms. Newell served as the Interim Managing Director of Syracuse Opera. In that position, she served as Director, in collaboration with WCNY television, for a PBS televised film presentation of No Cowards In Our Band, a music drama on the life of Frederick Douglass.

ADAM LUEBKE, CHORUSMASTER

Dr. Adam Luebke is the 2020 GRAMMY® award winner for Best Choral Performance. Appointed Music Director of Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus in 2015, the chorus has been hailed as “splendid,” “articulate,” “soaring,” and “virtuosic.” He and the chorus won the 2020 GRAMMY® award for Best Choral Performance for their recording Richard Danielpour: The Passion of Yeshua with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor JoAnn Falletta. At Fredonia, he teaches studio voice and conducts the College Choir. He has also taught voice class, conducting, Camerata (treble voices) and the Masterworks Chorus. He has prepared students for performances with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Western New York Chamber Orchestra, and the Hillman Opera 60th Anniversary Gala. Dr. Luebke has prepared choruses for conductors JoAnn Falletta, John Morris Russell, Rossen Milanov, Carl St. Clair, Bradley Thachuk, Tim Moffit, and Stefan Sanders. He worked alongside composer Richard Danielpour preparing the East Coast premiere performances and the world premiere recording of his The Passion of Yeshua for Naxos, Fabio Luisi to prepare his St. Bonaventure Mass at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the distinguished AfricanAmerican Spiritual arranger, Stacey Gibbs. Recent highlights include heralded performances of Mozart’s Requiem, Chichester Psalms, Verdi’s Requiem, Carmen, Carmina Burana, Brahms’ Requiem, Belshazzar’s Feast, Alexander Nevsky, Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, Porgy and Bess, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. His choruses have appeared on the nationally broadcast radio show Performance Today with Fred Child, and locally on WNED Classical and WNED-TV. He has conducted the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Amherst Symphony Orchestra; and appeared at David Geffen Hall in Lincoln Center, Kleinhans Music Hall, the Chautauqua Institution, and the National Cathedral. As a chorister, Dr. Luebke sang with the American Boychoir, St. Olaf Choir, and Westminster Choir. With these choruses, he performed with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, and Spoleto Festival USA opera chorus. He sings on recordings of the American Boychoir, Westminster Choir, and St. Olaf Choir on the Angel, Alliance, and Avie labels; as well as Amy Grant’s platinum album Home for Christmas. Dr. Luebke received his earliest musical training at the American Boychoir School and earned degrees from St. Olaf College, Westminster Choir College, and Florida State University. His teachers include Anton Armstrong, Joseph Flummerfelt, Andre Thomas, Andrew Megill, and James Litton.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

A weekend filled with magic - the Buffalo Philharmonic presents one of the most beloved operas ever written - Mozart's The Magic Flute. A beautiful fairy tale of the triumph of goodness and love, Mozart's incomparable music tells a story that will enchant young and old alike. The BPO is honored to partner with director Julie Newell, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Voice and Opera at Fredonia, and a fabulous cast of artists. Don't miss this rare chance to hear opera on the stage of Kleinhans in a unique collaboration with SUNY Fredonia in Mozart's luminous masterpiece.

PROGRAM NOTES

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

(German; 1756-1791)

The Magic Flute, K. 620 (1791)

Mozart’s adult career was largely based in Vienna, where from 1781 he was starting a family and earning revenues from piano concerto composition and performance. The middle of the decade saw a decline in returns from his keyboard work, which led to a historically important shift toward opera, and until the end of his short life, he would compose some of the most important contributions to the genre: Le Nozze di Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and Così fan tutte (1790), to name a few. His final opera came in 1791, the two-act Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), composed in the popular Singspiel format, a music-drama utilizing spoken dialogue. The work came about through collaboration with Mozart’s close friend and fellow composer Emanuel Schikaneder, who was responsible for creating the Opera’s libretto. The prolific Schikaneder not only ran his own opera troupe, but also built the Theater auf der Wieden, where his company was in residence. This venue hosted the opera’s premiere in September of 1791, with the librettist playing the role of Papageno. Mozart and Schikaneder were also linked by their mutual interest in Enlightenment-era Freemasonry. Mozart’s involvement began when he joined a Viennese lodge in 1784, and while membership had caused issues for Catholics, Mozart appears unburdened by this, perhaps more interested in Enlightenment principles as well as growing his professional circle. Their interest in Masonic tradition may be most apparent in The Magic Flute. Our hero, Tamino, must choose between dark and light, and undergoes initiation trials to prove his commitment to the ideals of virtue and brotherhood in order to rescue his love.

The handsome prince Tamino, lost in a mysterious land, is chased by a serpent. After fainting, three of the Queen of the Night’s ladies kill the serpent, but upon his awakening, the birdcatcher Papageno arrives (in the form of a bird) to take credit. When the ladies return, they show a picture of the Queen’s daughter (Pamina) to Tamino, and falling in love with her, he is commanded by the Queen to rescue her from the reviled Sarastro. The odd couple are sent on their way with the protection of three spirits, a magic flute for Tamino, and silver bells for Papageno. Pamina tries to break free from Sarastro’s temple, but his slaves, led by Monostatos, chain her. Papageno frightens Monostatos away, and informs Pamina that Tamino is coming to her aid. Tamino is occupied at the temple, where he learns that the Queen is evil, not Sarastro, who enters to scold Monostatos and promises Pamina’s eventual freedom. However, for the two lovers to be united, Tamino must undergo trials to prove

his worth. Sarastro’s priests explain that the initiation rites Tamino would undergo instill godlike virtue and justice. Act II opens with a council of priests who initiate Tamino’s trials, the first of which requires silence in the presence of women so as to not be tricked by their wiles. Although the clumsy Papageno cannot contain his words, Tamino reminds him of their directive and the women disappear. As Pamina sleeps, the lust-driven Monostatos tries to kiss her, but hides upon the arrival of the Queen of the Night, who stakes her claim on the temple. Learning that Tamino is being initiated into her enemy’s circle, she gives Pamina a dagger and instructs her to kill Sarastro or be disowned. After the Queen’s departure, Monostatos attempts to blackmail Pamina, but is cast aside when Sarastro enters. Pamina begs him to forgive the Queen, but Sarastro soothes her with a promise of kindness. Tamino’s ordeal continues with an order to remain quiet and refrain from eating. Of course, Papageno is convinced by an old lady to drink a glass of water. Pamina arrives but is crushed by Tamino’s silence, not knowing of his vows. Papageno gives up on his interest in the trials, and hopes to take a wife instead. He declares his love for the old lady as she morphs into a beautiful young Papagena, but the priests declare him unworthy and recall her. A bereft Pamina is informed of Tamino’s love as he enters his final trial: overcoming the fear of death. The two lovers unite for the final test, as they move unharmed in the chambers of fire and water, with the protection of the music of Tamino’s magic flute. The despairing Papageno contemplates suicide, but spirits remind him of his magic bells. Once rung, Papagena is returned to him, and the two enjoy an avian duet. Our protagonists are united with Tamino, who succeeding the trials joins the brotherhood. Sarastro banishes the Queen into eternal night, and a new era of the sun’s triumph, wisdom, and brotherhood is celebrated.

The Opera’s connections to Freemasonry and its rites have been the topic of discussion for scholars, many of whom assert that the Queen of the Night may represent the Roman Catholic Church or some other common enemy of the Masons, and that Tamino is a developing protagonist who experiences ritualistic transformation. Like much great art, The Magic Flute was created in a specific political climate by engaged members of society. However, whatever remnants of history remain may cause either deeper understanding or distraction. What we are left with is a magical work whose imaginative fantasy was portrayed in musical brilliance as one of the final works of Mozart, and has remained a beloved mystery for centuries.

Chaz Stuart, 2021