Cordingley, A. (2024). [Costume Design] The Magic Flute. By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Emanuel Schikaneder. Directed by Kate Gaul. Opera Australia, Sydney, 2024.

This new expression of Mozart's The Magic Flute, directed by Kate Gaul with Costume Design by Anna Cordingley, has been conceived as a companion piece to Idomeneo. Uniquely, two new major works share a staging world, enabling dovetailing-programming throughout Opera Australia's summer season, 2023-4. In defiance of the expectations typically set by the form, this production seeks humility, self-effacement, playfulness, absurdity and potency. Australia's antipodean performance history is foregrounded in treatment of character, as tropes from vaudeville and pantomime inhabit the costume palette. Contemporary Sydney audiences are mirrored onstage as the acolytes of Sarastro, in what is a wistful, jovial but satirical celebration and resolution at the end of Mozart's famed opera. The chief contribution made by this new production centres on voice and generation; female conductors, directors and designers still rarely have the opportunity to re-evaluate the opera canon, and importantly, this work aligns with the arrival of Opera Australia's new Artistic Director, Jo Davies. It is hoped that this season marks a turning point in the expression of the artform across our main stages.