Photo courtesy of Rich Amada

Pamina (music graduate student Kimberly Hubartt) stands above Tamino (music graduate student Todd Strange) in a scene from Mozart's "The Magic Flute." The UA Opera Theater is performing the opera tonight through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m.

UA Opera Theater presents Mozart's "The Magic Flute"

When people hear the word "magic" these days, they probably associate it with Harry Potter. In the case of classical opera, though, it has to do with flutes and bells.

The University of Arizona Opera Theater presents its main production for the fall 2001 semester: Mozart's "Die Zauberflšte," better known as "The Magic Flute."

The opera is directed by UA voice professor Charles Roe, accompanied by the UA Orchestra and conducted by Thomas Cockrell. The opera is a "singspiel" - a German opera that incorporates spoken dialogue. In this case, the words are spoken in English while the songs are performed in German with English translations on projected supertitles.

"It's not very often that a school can do this kind of show," Roe said. "You need to have the right voices in order to do this. We have a soprano who sings the very highest of high notes and a bass who sings the lowest low notes."

The music department cast the opera's parts at the beginning of the school year, and for 10 hours a week, the graduate and undergraduate students have been putting hard work into getting it ready for performance.

For Tammi Huber, a first-year graduate student studying vocal performance with a focus in opera, this opera is a first with UA. Huber is playing the role of the Queen of the Night, one of the lead female roles.

"It's one of the most difficult things to sing," Huber said.

Huber is singing the coloratura part - the highest soprano voice in opera, which uses a lot of scales and ornamentations in song.

"The queen is all kinds of emotions wrapped up into one," Huber said. "At the beginning, she's poised, but she's really manipulative the entire time. It's been really good because it's the most challenging role - I've learned so much."

Second-year master's degree student Todd Strange is playing the male lead, Prince Tamino.

"It's a lot of fun," Strange said. "The music I get to sing for the tenor part is gorgeous."

Strange's character is the hero who must rescue Pamina, daughter of the Queen of the Night.

"Tamino has a pure heart," Strange said. "He's searching for truth, love and wisdom, and he finds it through all his trials."

The story takes place in Egypt. Prince Tamino, accompanied by his friend, Papageno, must rescue the daughter of the Queen of the Night, Pamina. Pamina has been kidnapped by Sarastro, who seems evil at first but turns out to be a virtuous, high-ranking priest; the queen is really the evil one. Tamino and Papageno use their magic flute and bells, respectively, to overcome various obstacles, such as walking through fire and water in order to save Pamina.

"It's a very entertaining show," Roe said. "It should be quite a spectacle."

Roe has done more than 30 operas in his time at UA; however, his first opera in the fall of 1989 was "The Magic Flute."

"I've come full circle," Roe said with a laugh.

The UA Opera Theater presents Mozart's "The Magic Flute" at Crowder Hall tonight through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. with one matinee performance at 3 p.m. Sunday. General admission is $12, UA employees and seniors (55+) are $10 and students are $8. Tickets are available through the Fine Arts Box Office in the Marroney Theater, 621-1162.