Mozart’s fantastic romp “The Magic Flute” from the Lyric Opera of Chicago is this week’s offering on The Sunday Opera (9/1 3:00 p.m.). Prince Tamino is charged with passing a series of tests to win the hand of Princess Pamina whose mother just happens to be the wicked Queen of the Night whose well-known aria in which she condemns her daughter to painful death unless Pamina kills the Queen’s wizard rival Sarastro is consistently used to try to sell cars for some reason. With the help of the bumbling “bird man” Papageno, Tamino wins his love and the Queen and her minions are defeated!
Sir Andrew Davis conducts a cast featuring Matthew Polenzani as Tamino, Christiane Karg as Pamina, Adam Plachetka as Papageno, Christof Fischesser as Sarastro, and Kathryn Lewek as the Queen of the Night. Stay tuned after the opera when Michael Kownacky will be bringing you more Mozart of a sort with an excerpt from “Mozart” the opera by Reynaldo Hahn.
