Prince Tamino has been sent to fight the forces of evil and save Princess Pamina who has been kidnapped from her mother (The Queen of the Night) by the wicked Sarastro. However, it turns out that the opposite is true: the kind and gentle Sarastro is actually protecting the Princess from her sinister and revengeful mother. Tamino the hero, learns during the course of his adventures to look upon the secrets of life from a different perspective and overcome the various obstacles put in his way – monsters and fears – with the help of the magic of music which soothes the soul and restores peace to the world.

The magical, comic and wondrous combinations and the many different musical styles woven together in Mozart’s masterpiece are sure to please. The Magic Flute is the ultimate example of European culture at its finest, incorporating Mozart’s symbolism’s and ideals – brotherhood and the unity of mankind.

What more can be asked from an opera which is forever fresh, merging musical surprises, an entertaining fable and the message of wisdom and humanity?

The idea of this production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” under my stage direction, is growth. How to grow up but not lose contact with the magic of life, with the poetry of life, with the magic and poetry of nature, with our very selves and with others. All of this interacts together and naturally affects the growth of the spiritual and intellectual parts of each of us, with all the difficulties that this entails at every moment in our lives. This is intricately connected to our very humanity. The part of us that is afraid, that can be cowardly when we should not be, the part of us that is lazy and so on. The character of Papageno in the opera exemplifies this very well (and that's one of the reasons why we like him so much). He is somehow all of the parts of us that we don't dare to confess even to ourselves, but that are so indicative and common in each of us. This dichotomy can be seen also in the conflict between our masculine and feminine parts. Feminine, even if one is a man, or masculine even if one is a woman .Or masculine even if one is a man….. That's what a young pre-adolescent or adolescent must face in order to become a young man or a young woman. How to fit together the sum of all the parts? But the problem exists not only for youth, as it is what we all have to face in our lives, every day. The same applies to nature. Sometimes we are full of courage and determination to face things and other times we are not, sometimes we are too stubborn to realize just what is needed, sometimes we believe in ourselves and other times not, some days we are just lazy ….. Seeing our limitations and being capable of understanding them, overcoming them. Or not. That's our every day challenge. And the idea is to try and find in that a little bit of magic and poetry. Every day ....

Musical Director and Conductor: Omer Arieli
Stage Director: Monica Waitzfelder

The Ashdod Symphony Orchestra
Concertmeister: Bella Portnov
Chorus Master: Oded Shomrony

The Jerusalem Opera Choir and The Jerusalem Oratorio Chamber Choir
Artistic Advisor: Gabriele Ribis
Assistant Stage Director: Ari Teperberg
Stage Designer: Anna Ziv
Costume Designer: Shira Weiss
Lighing Designer: Adi Shimroni
Producer: Adi Juliusberger
Graphic Designer: Revital Toren
Stage Manager: Lee Teperberg Kanai
Lighting and Sound: Eli Paz, Artistic Lighting and Sound
Set Construction: The Theatre Workshop Ltd.
Makeup: Lilach Ofek Achai
Projections: Lustig Projections and Video
Public Relations: Anat Meromi Public Relations
Advertising and Marketing: Bimot
Rehearsal Pianists: Michael Zartsekel and Irina Rozhneva
Video Production: Udi Alfasi, Tranquilo Productions
Stills Photography: Elad Zagman, Larry Brandt
Public Relations Photos: Gaia Sa’adon
Surtitles: Daniel Lasry
Surtitle Projectionist: Hannah Harnest
Choir Coordinator: Louis Sachs

Soloists:
Semjon Bulinsky, tenor – Tamino
Samuel Berlad, baritone – Papageno
Na’ama Shulman, soprano – Pamina
Viktoria Varga, soprano – Queen of the Night
Denis Sedov, bass – Sarastro
Mima Millo, soprano – First Lady
Noa Hope, mezzo-soprano – Second Lady
Anna Peshes, mezzo-soprano – Third Lady
Jean-Christophe Born, tenor – Monostatos
Yuri Kissin, bass – High Priest
Ayelet Kagan, soprano – Papagena
Steven Timoner, bass – High Priest and understudy for Sarastro
Ofri Gross, tenor – Priest
Mika Erlich, Romi Zelig, Anna Peshes – Three Spirits