NEW YORK—One of the Metropolitan Opera’s better ideas is to present a child-friendly performance of an opera during the holiday season. This year, the Met brought back Julie Taymor’s 2004 production of “The Magic Flute” (Die Zauberflöte). This is a stripped-down, 100-minute version of the opera, performed in English.
Although I prefer Mozart’s music unabridged, I confess that I prefer hearing the dialogue in my own language rather than German.
Christopher Maltman as Papageno in the Met's production of Mozart's "The Magic Flute." Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera
