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By Matthew Westphal
and Matt Blank
10 Apr 2007

Opera fans may not know much about him, but William Kentridge is a genuine star in the art world. His charcoal drawings, and the short animated films he makes with them, have won the Johannesburg native international admiration and renown. But one wouldn't expect to find him staging opera, any more than one would, say, David Hockney.

Which is to say, of course, that Kentridge does stage opera, and quite successfully. In fact, he has acted and directed for the stage since 1975 and even studied mime in France. He has been making multimedia theater works, in partnership with the Handspring Puppet Company, since 1992; their production of Monteverdi's opera Il ritorno d'Ulisse, originally presented by the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, had a widely-praised run at Lincoln Center in 2004.

Kentridge's latest operatic venture — another Handspring collaboration, and again from La Monnaie — has arrived in New York: Mozart's The Magic Flute, which opened last night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. We offer some photos of the production below.

Jeremy Ovenden plays Prince Tamino, with Sophie Karthäuser as Pamina, Stephan Loges as Papageno, Milagros Poblador as the Queen of the Night, and Kaiser N'kosi as Sarastro; Piers Maxim conducts La Monnaie's chorus and orchestra. There are three further performances, on April 11, 13 and 14, at BAM's Howard Gilman Opera House; information and tickets are available at www.bam.org.

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All photos by Stephanie Berger.

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