Baritone Christian Andreas performs as "Papageno" in Mozart’s The Magic Flute at Aquilon Music Festival

As part of the Aquilon Music Festival’s Young Artist Program, this week Christian Andreas leads the cast as “Papageno” in Mozart’s celebrated The Magic Flute, in a re-invigorated take on the classic opera.

The Young Artist Program brings together young artists from across the US to celebrate beloved classics and bring to life forgotten works of the past, all in the heart of the scenic Willamette Valley. This season’s highlight is the fully-staged take on Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

In this staging, the opera has been interpreted as a fairy-tale, the story of the ontological fight between good and evil, or as the triumph of light over darkness. Perhaps the most likable characters in this story are the always-chattering human-avian hybrids “Papageno” (here interpreted by Christian Andreas and Klemen Adamlje) and his ever-evasive female counterpart “Papagena” (Chelsea Janzen and Kristen Swenson). The couple no longer only functions as comedic relief, as their enjoyment of nature and the simple pleasures of life serves as the opera's most compelling element of redemption.

The opera, directed by Daniel Helfgot and conducted by Barbara Day Turner, will run from Wednesday, 17 July to Saturday, 20 July (19:30) in the Marshall Theatre at Kenneth W. Ford Hall in McMinnville OR, USA.

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