Almost 30 years after his La Tragédie de Carmen riveted audiences at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, director Peter Brook returns to Lincoln Center with a vivacious new interpretation of Die Zauberflöte. This intimate adaptation strips the work’s usual ornamentation to reveal the impish, effervescent heart of Mozart’s masterpiece.
The gorgeously simple staging features just a single piano and seven highly talented young singers who, under Brook’s subtle directing, fill Mozart’s score with new humanity and color. First delicate and tender, then quirky and playful, the opera unfolds before your eyes with an immediacy and freshness that have been seen only too rarely before.