The first time we see the Queen of the Night in Arizona Opera’s “The Magic Flute,” she is perched above the stage, astride a camel with angelic wings.
The beast, hanging from ropes, lands with a quiet wooden thump on a set minimally dressed to resemble a multilayered mesa that occupied almost every inch of the Tucson Music Hall stage.
It is one of many subtle effects stage director/set designer Thaddeus Strassberger created to bring Mozart’s masterpiece of comedy and fantasy into the 21st century.
Other touches included puppeteers marching with animal masks on sticks to represent the beasts Papageno (Joshua Hopkins making his Arizona debut) encounters on his journey to collect birds for the Queen of the Night (soprano Heather Buck); and six actors sharing the colorful costume of the serpent chasing Tamino until he fainted in a lump.