Die Zauberflöte: Live in HD Transmission Transcript

READ: Bliss Show Intro & Interview with Peter Gelb

BEN BLISS:  I’m Ben Bliss.  Welcome to the Met’s final live cinema presentation of the season, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, The Magic Flute.  Come with me to Vienna.  The year is 1791.  After a career of Italian language operas composed for an upper class audience, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was thrilled to compose an opera in German for the people.  The result, Die Zauberflöte, a magical operatic adventure, was an instant rip-roaring success with its late 18^th century audience and remains so to this day.

In this new staging, which captures the freewheeling spirit of Mozart’s musical masterpiece, director Simon McBurney has created a kaleidoscope of a production that erases the conventional boundaries of stage, audience and orchestra pit.  If spontaneity in opera is what you crave, this is The Magic Flute for you. 

Maestro Nathalie Stutzmann is almost ready to start today’s performance.  But first, I’m going to speak with Met General Manager, Peter Gelb, who recently announced plans for the next season’s Live in HD series.  Hi, Peter.

PETER GELB:  Hey, Ben.

BEN BLISS:  Nice to see you.

PETER GELB:  Great to see you.  First of all, I should congratulate you on your superb performance in Don Giovanni.  You know, it’s a pleasure to have you on our stage and – and as one of our star – star – rising star performers, so thank you.

BEN BLISS:  That’s very kind.  Thank you.  It’s always such a pleasure of my life to be on the Met stage.  It’s – it’s amazing, Peter.

PETER GELB:  Well, we want a lot more of you.

BEN BLISS:  Oh, well, so do I.  We’ll talk.  (Laughs)  In the meantime, uh, would you like to tell us about some of the highlights of next season’s HD?

PETER GELB:  Right.  I think it’s very important that, um, opera audiences understand that, uh, the Met is on a mission to not only preserve the great classics of – of the repertoire with new productions like, uh, a new production of Forza del Destino next season, a new production of Carmen, but also that we are exploring the – the expansion of the repertory with important new works that are composed, uh, with the audience in mind.  And certainly, uh, Dead Man Walking, which opens our next seasons, starring Joyce DiDonato, which is the story of redemption of, uh – setting in a – in a – in a prison, uh, based on the movie Dead Man Walking, uh, and composed by Jake Heggie, is an example of an opera that actually is meant to, uh, uh, appeal to the heart as – as well as the intellect.

And more and more operas that we are presenting are meant to do exactly that.  We need – this is a time when opera needs to grow, uh, through new works that will actually, uh, broaden the repertoire and please our audiences around the world.  So, I want our movie audiences to know that the Met has them very much in mind when we’re thinking about new work.  We’re going to find that right balance between new, accessible, appealing works as well as the classics.

BEN BLISS:  I’m so proud to see the Met continuing to help define opera in this new time in this beautiful space.  Thank you so much, Peter.  We really appreciate it.  And would you also like to tell us a bit about, uh, why the new works are so important or –

PETER GELB:  Well, I think I – I touched upon that just now.  But, you know, when you think about – it’s really a question of balance, you know?  Uh, about – next season, about three of the nine works that we’re going to be presenting are – are new to audiences.  And another one that is a perfect example of accessibility and beauty in opera is, uh, Florencia en el Amazonas –

BEN BLISS:  Yes.

PETER GELB: – starring Ailyn Pérez, one of our great singers.  Which is about a diva’s final journey down the – down the Amazon, uh, in search of her long-lost boyfriend.  And the music is as beautiful as anything Puccini has ever written.  So, you know, this is – this is really what makes opera so exciting for us here so that we’re creating a future path for opera and also honoring the great traditions as well.

BEN BLISS:  Beautiful.  Thank you again, Peter.

PETER GELB:  Thanks very much, Ben.

BEN BLISS:  Thanks very much.  What a great cast we have for today’s performance of Die Zauberflöte.  Tenor Lawrence Brownlee as Tamino, the young prince on a quest for love and knowledge.  Soprano Erin Morley as Pamina, the princess, but not your average damsel in distress.  Kathryn Lewek is her fearsome mother, the Queen of the Night.  Bass Stephen Milling is the wise priest Sarastro.  And comic relief is provided by Thomas Oliemans as Papageno, resident bird-catcher and Tamino’s unwitting foil.

In Mozart’s time, the opening bars of the overture were used to snap the audience to attention and end their chatter.  As you will see, Simon McBurney and Maestro Nathalie Stutzmann have embraced that idea today.  Here is Die Zauberflöte.

INTERVIEW:  Bliss w/ Erin Morley & Lawrence Brownlee

BEN BLISS:  I’m here with our hero and heroine, Lawrence Brownlee and Erin Morley.  You guys, hello.  Bravo for the first act.

ERIN MORLEY:  Hi.  Thank you.

LAWRENCE BROWNLEE:  Thanks, Ben.

BEN BLISS:  So, uh, how is this production different than anything else you’ve ever been in before?  Because, obviously, it’s different.  Erin?

ERIN MORLEY:  Definitely. Um, well, it’s very physical.  We’ve had a lot of, um, sort of, uh, physical challenges in this production.  There’s a lot of running around, there’s – there’s the platform that we have to deal with.  It’s, you know – you’ll see later, there’s some very exciting flying coming up.

BEN BLISS:  Oooh, of which we will speak.

ERIN MORLEY:  So, that’s – that’s different.  Yeah.

BEN BLISS:  What are your thoughts, Larry?

LAWRENCE BROWNLEE:  Like Erin said, it’s physical, it’s fast, it’s challenging.  Uh, we have to do so many things in addition to doing something crazy like singing.

BEN BLISS:  (Laughs)

LAWRENCE BROWNLEE:  So, we’re having fun doing that and trying to condition our bodies so it’s natural.  So, that’s the fun of this production.

BEN BLISS:  I believe it.  The fun and the challenge both.  So, Erin, you are a veteran of Pamina, having performed actually with someone rather familiar in the Julie Taymor English language version.  Talk to me a little bit about how this Simon McBurney production brings a different angle to Pamina.

ERIN MORLEY:  Yeah, well, so, what’s interesting about my journey with Pamina is actually – this is my first full-length Pamina.

BEN BLISS:  Really?

ERIN MORLEY:  And my first German language Pamina.  So, um, when we did the Julie Taymor holiday version, um, Pamina’s role is actually quite short in that version.

BEN BLISS:  Mm hmm.

ERIN MORLEY:  And so this is – this really feels, um, very much like a role debut actually.  Um, and, um, and I love her, more than I thought I would.  I – I – I think Simon – working with Simon has been really refreshing.  He – he brings out the strength in this character.  You know, she’s, um – she’s going through a series of very traumatic events throughout the opera and we really worked on building that journey to the suicide scene, um, so that it makes more sense, um, for the audience.  There’s a real build up to that and, – and I hope the audience feels that.

BEN BLISS:  Beautiful.  And, Larry, uh, Tamino is a role that we’ve shared together at the Met.  I guess not really at the same time.  As I mentioned, I did the English language one with Erin.  And, uh, tell us about your Tamino in this production.

LAWRENCE BROWNLEE:  You know, it’s interesting because I – I’ve been saying this recently – I was 19-years old when I first sang Tamino.  That’s the very first role I ever sang in opera.

BEN BLISS:  Me, too.

LAWRENCE BROWNLEE:  Someone came up to me and said, you’re Tamino, and I said, what?  And I said, what is a Tamino?  So, to return, uh, to the role many years later, though – many years later, I won’t say how many years – uh, there’s been a lot of growth obviously as an artist, as a person – intellectually, I think there’s a lot more that I understand about this character.  But I’ve had a great time diving into who Tamino is in this production as well.

BEN BLISS:  I love it.  You guys, thank you both so much for speaking for me.  Go get a drink of water, rest up for Act Two and we’ll see you later.

LAWRENCE BROWNLEE:  Thanks, Ben.

ERIN MORLEY:  Thank you, Ben.

BEN BLISS:  Toi toi.  Have a great time.  (Laughs)

LAWRENCE BROWNLEE:  Thank you.

READ:  Throw to tape

BEN BLISS:  So, for this new production of Die Zauberflöte , director Simon McBurney researched the origins of opera and the collaboration between Mozart and his librettist, Emanuel Schikaneder.  We recently spoke with Simon and a couple of his key collaborators about how this novel production came to be.

Finding the Magic:  A New Die Zauberflöte for the Met

SIMON MCBURNEY:  The Magic Flute was originally commissioned by Schikaneder to be performed in Theater an der Wien in 1791.  And Theater an der Wien was not a high class theater.  It was a theater for the people, which, uh, meant that the tunes had to be popular.  So Michael Levine, the designer, and I – when we first started this whole project – were thinking, well, what was the Theater an der Wien like, and how can we sort of create that sense of excitement that they must have had about Mozart finally writing a popular piece for a popular audience?

What did that first audience in 1791 see when the overture of The Magic Flute began?  Well, at that time, the orchestra was very often on stage, so there was a very intimate relationship between the musicians and the singers.  In the 19th century, the opera pit descended into the bowels of the earth, so we decided it would be wonderful, as part of the design, to lift it up again.  You can touch on this relationship between musicians and singers.

Theater an der Wien was a very modern theatre.  They had all the latest technology.  They had extraordinary ways of bringing in – in scenery changes, and they also had extraordinary, uh, sound effect.  What we’ve done is we’ve taken that idea, and we make the sound effects on stage. It is a Foley artist, and you will see her producing the sounds in front of your eyes.

RUTH SULLIVAN:  Traditionally, a Foley artist spends a lot of time in a dark studio making sounds for TV drama and film.  Whatever the actors do on screen I, uh, mimic.  So, if they're walking through grass, if they’re walking through leaves, I will walk in time with them.

This opera has a few scenes of dialogue, which is quite unusual for opera, and the idea behind this production is to neatly segue from the drama and the emotion of the singing into those scenes of dialogue.  And they do that by using sound effects, and that's where I come in.

So, the character of Papageno has a lot of interaction with birds, and so, um, one of the sound effects I make towards the beginning of the show is the sound of birds… flying away… which is quite nice because these are just, uh, gardening gloves. 

It’s a real mix of high tech and very low tech in the Foley world, and I think that's what we've managed to – to achieve with all of these lovely props.

SIMON MCBURNEY:  Also in 1791 in Theater an der Wien, of course there would’ve been wonderful scenic drops and so on.  But rather than doing painted backdrops, uh, it’s simpler if we just have two very simple screens and we project onto them.  But rather than having a set of projections, which is, uh, sort of already in a computer and you press it with your hand, we make them live.  So, there’s a live camera and you can see the video artist– and he is really an artist – drawing on a chalkboard, putting pictures in front of the camera, working with little silhouettes and so on.  So again, that aspect, the visual aspect, is also being made live in front of your eyes.

BLAKE HABERMANN:  Simon and I, and Michael, the designer, talked about wanting to have the board visible to the audience while I’m drawing on it, which requires placing that camera basically right in front of it.  What really helped me deal with the camera and deal with all the different things I have to do is listening to the music and following the music, and the music really dictates how the letters come out and how things flow out.  And so I see myself as kind of creating a visual embodiment of the music in real time.

SIMON MCBURNEY:  You have to remember that The Magic Flute was written in a time of huge social instability, things are moving.  You’ve got a revolution in Paris – is it coming to Vienna?  Are the peasants and the working class finally going to revolt?  Is blood going to run down the streets?  Are we being told the truth?  Are we being given fake news?  What is it that we actually believe in?  It’s an unstable world and this piece appeared at that time.

But the overall journey of the piece is how can we change the way that we think?  That’s the journey of the characters.  And I believe, secretly – and this is, of course, what fired our imaginations as we were creating the production – that for Mozart, the way that you can change the way that people think is through music.  The piece is called The Magic Flute.  The flute is magic. When it is played, people behave in a different way.  Things happen.

The proposition for Mozart, somewhere in his being, I believe, is that he can write music that is so startling and so beautiful that when people leave the theatre, their consciousness will be changed and they will see the world anew.

INTERVIEW:  Bliss w/ Bryan Wagorn & Seth Morris

BEN BLISS:  It’s easy to imagine Mozart smiling at what Simon McBurney and his team have created.  Now I’m in the orchestra pit to speak with two Met musicians who in this production take center stage, Bryan Wagorn, a member of the Met music staff who plays Papageno’s glockenspiel, and our principal flutist, Seth Morris.  How’s it going, guys?

SETH MORRIS:  Great.

BRYAN WAGORN:  Great to see you.

BEN BLISS:  Thanks for joining me.  Good to see you too.  It’s been a long time.  (Laughs)  So, Seth, I wanted to talk to you first.  Never in the history of the Met has the flute figured so prominently in the staging of an opera.  What was your reaction when you were first told that you were going to be on stage in this production?

SETH MORRIS:  Pure excitement.  I was thrilled that, um, the title character of Die Zauberflöte would finally be on stage.  Um, so it’s – it’s just been a lot of fun to actually get to be engaged with what’s happening on stage, be a part of the staging.  It’s been incredible.

BEN BLISS:  Does it change the way you pay at all?  A little more nerves?  Or is it fun for you?

SETH MORRIS:  You know, I think, um, right before I actually go on to play, I have to sit and rest and not play for a while, so that’s where the nerves sort of bubble up.  But then once I’m on stage, uh, it’s just pure excitement and fun.

BEN BLISS:  I believe it.  I believe it.  I know that feeling.  (Laughs)  And, Bryan, you are already a veteran of the Met stage.  You played the part of the bewigged piano virtuoso Lazinski in Giordano’s Fedora earlier this season.  I mean, I don’t feel like I really have to ask but, uh, do you enjoy getting to be a little hammy on stage?

BRYAN WAGORN:   It’s so great.  I love it.  And it makes me appreciate how difficult your jobs are as singers because you have to sing, you have to look at the conductor, you have to act, you have to do all these things.  And our brains are not – we’re used to doing one thing.  So, now we have to do multiple things, so we’re very much in awe of what all of you do.

SETH MORRIS:  Absolutely.

BRYAN WAGORN:  And also just seeing like, backstage, the Wig Department, the Costume Department, like they’re all so incredible.  So, it’s – it’s been such an honor and such a pleasure.

BEN BLISS:  Oh, I love it.  Well, for our audience members who maybe are not super familiar with this magnificent glockenspiel, would you like to give us a little taste?

BRYAN WAGORN:  Oh, sure.  Here you go.  (Plays glockenspiel.)

BEN BLISS:  Ah-ha, love it.  Familiar tune, isn’t it?

BRYAN WAGORN:  It’s a lot of fun.  Yeah, it’s a lot of fun.

BEN BLISS:  Seth, going back to you for just a second, can you tell us a little bit about your path to becoming the principal flute at the Met Opera?

SETH MORRIS:  Sure.  Um, I grew up playing opera in school, um, in undergrad and beyond that.  And, uh, before coming to the Metropolitan Opera, I was principal flute with the Houston Grand Opera for five years, so I already had kind of a foundation of opera before coming here.  So, I was destined for the pit.

BEN BLISS:  Yeah, I love it.  And, Bryan, you’re also a member of the music staff here at the Met.  Besides playing the glockenspiel, what are some of your other duties around the Met?

BRYAN WAGORN:  Um, so definitely coaching singers, playing rehearsals.  And the fun thing as a pianist is that we get to play different instruments too.  So, I mean, I’ve played the harpsichord, forte piano, now the glockenspiel.  So, you know, every day is so different and every day is so exciting, so – I just love it.

BEN BLISS:  It’s a great place to work, isn’t it?

BRYAN WAGORN:  It really is.  I recommend it.

BEN BLISS:  It’s magic.  It’s magic.  Listen, guys, thank you so much for joining me.  Have a great Act Two and we’ll see you shortly, all right?

BRYAN WAGORN:  Thank you, Ben.

SETH MORRIS:  Thank you.

BEN BLISS:  All right.

Throw to break

BEN BLISS:   The Met’s Live in HD series is made possible thanks to its founding sponsor, the Neubauer Family Foundation.  Digital Support is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies.  The Met’s Live in HD series is supported by Rolex.  Today’s performance of Die Zauberflöte is also being heard over the Toll Brothers Metropolitan Opera Radio Network.  We’ll be right back after a quick break.

Throw to HD Season Preview

BEN BLISS:  Welcome back.  For today’s inventive new production of Die Zauberflöte,  director Simon McBurney has employed a grab-bag of theatrical tricks Mozart himself would surely have been delighted with in this fun improvisatory approach.  On screen the production is a joy, but here in the opera house it’s truly transcendent.  A classic opera in a brilliant production with an unbeatable cast.  You simply have to be here in the opera house to get the full mind-blowing effect.  So, come to the Met or visit your local opera company.

Simon McBurney’s production of Die Zauberflöte revels in the juxtaposition of old school, low tech theatrical thrills along with some very modern touches. But make no mistake – this is a big time operatic endeavor with an enormous number of onstage and offstage players, all of whom are at the top of their fields.  Putting on a staging like this and sharing it with a global cinematic audience is very expensive.  Ticket sales alone cannot cover the costs. The Met relies on opera lovers like you to help make up the difference.  If you’re able, please make a donation.  Visit metopera.org/membership or call us at 1-800-MET-OPERA.  You can also text HDLIVE to 44321 to make a contribution.  We thank you for your invaluable support of the Met.

As I discussed earlier with General Manager Peter Gelb, the Met has announced plans for next season’s Live in HD lineup.  Let’s take a more detailed look at what’s coming up.

INTERVIEW:  Bliss w/ Maestro Nathalie Stutzmann

BEN BLISS:  Next season’s HD lineup looks amazing.  But, first, let’s get back to Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte.  I’m joined now by Maestro Nathalie Stutzmann.  Nathalie, hello.

NATHALIE STUTZMANN:  Hi, Don Octavio.

BEN BLISS:  Hello.

NATHALIE STUTZMANN:  A few hours after our Don Giovanni.

BEN BLISS:  Exactly.  On this stage just a few hours ago, we were having our final performance of Don Giovanni.  I can hardly believe it.

NATHALIE STUTZMANN:  Congratulations.

BEN BLISS:  Thank you.  Likewise, likewise.  So, how do you recalibrate from last night’s performance into another Mozart opera just a few hours later?

NATHALIE STUTZMANN:  Just try to sleep a little bit.  A sip of coffee as well. 

BEN BLISS:  (Laughs)

NATHALIE STUTZMANN:  No, it’s, of course, very different operas, even if it’s Mozart.  And, uh, you know, this Don Giovanni is so complex and is such the – for me, the last masterpiece of the true Mozart.  And Zauberflöte is like an annunciation of the future of music.  It’s extraordinary.  In this sense I find you have lots of Schubert melodies.

BEN BLISS:  Mm hmm.

NATHALIE STUTZMANN:  Brahms, Wagner even.  It’s like an annunciation of the history of music coming back.

BEN BLISS:  Beautiful.  So, we share something in common, that we both grew up in musical families.  You went on to learn to play many instruments and you also had a renowned career as a singer.  How do you think your experience as a singer influences your work at the podium as a conductor?

NATHALIE STUTZMANN:  Well, of course, you know, I know the difficulties, I know how to help, I know how difficult it is.  And I just – I just want to carry.  But I think also singers need more than just an accompaniment.  They need the drive, support.  They need to – to get the line.  And, uh, this is what I’m trying to do, to combine this, uh, of course, breathing and helping my singers and carrying them, but also shaping them in the architecture of the old opera.  And this is very challenging but it’s so much fun.

BEN BLISS:  Absolutely.  So, one of the first things you notice with this production is that the orchestra is practically on the stage.  Does this make any special demands from you and the musicians?

NATHALIE STUTZMANN:  Yeah, of course, it’s very, very challenging for bringing everyone together because the positions are very different, because they don’t rely on the same acoustic as they usually have down.  And, um, because every little detail which doesn’t work can be heard.  And so it’s – it’s very – it’s very stressful in a way for them and – but, you know, we just have to – to manage.  And the production is so fantastic, and I try, you know – also the singers have so much to do.

BEN BLISS:  Mm hmm.

NATHALIE STUTZMANN:  Um, and it’s my job just to – to make the mayonnaise that everyone goes together, you know?

BEN BLISS:  (Laughs) Well, you’ve done a beautiful job.  I’d like to congratulate you on your back-to-back Mozart triumphs here at the Met, and thank you again for speaking with me today.

NATHALIE STUTZMANN:  Thank you so much, Ben.  I just want to say hello to all my friends, my family. (Speaks French)  Thank you so much.

BEN BLISS:  Thank you.

NATHALIE STUTZMANN:  Bye.

INTERVIEW:  Bliss w/ Kathryn Lewek & Thomas Oliemans

BEN BLISS:  And now I get the pleasure of speaking with our spine-chilling Queen of the Night, soprano Kathryn Lewek, and our lovable Papageno, baritone Thomas Oliemans.  Hello to you both.  Nice to see you.

KATHRYN LEWEK: Hi, Ben.

THOMAS OLIEMANS:  Nice to see you.

BEN BLISS:  Congratulations on a beautiful Act One.  So, I’d like to ask you first, Katie, uh, today is really a milestone for you here at the Met as it marks your 50^th performance of the Queen of the Night –

KATHRYN LEWEK: Yes.  (Laughs)

BEN BLISS:   – on this stage.  That is the most of any soprano in the history of the Metropolitan Opera.  Congratulations, first of all.

KATHRYN LEWEK: Thank you.

BEN BLISS:  And can you tell me what you do to keep this role fresh for you after all those brilliant performances?

KATHRYN LEWEK: Well, I think, um, you know, every – every production has, uh, something new to give to me.

BEN BLISS:  Mm hmm.

KATHRYN LEWEK: And I feel like as long as I can approach it every time like it’s almost a different role, that it kind of keeps it, uh, interesting to me.

BEN BLISS:  Beautiful.  I love it.  Brilliant.  (Laughs)  And, Thomas, nice to meet you.  We haven’t met before.  You’re doing a brilliant job.

THOMAS OLIEMANS:  Thank you.

BEN BLISS:  Congratulations on your Met debut.

THOMAS OLIEMANS:  Yeah.

BEN BLISS:  It’s really been such a treat to see you and – and to watch you in this production.  Speaking of this production, Papageno is really a tour de force of singing and physical comedy.  Can you tell us a bit about how you inhabit both sides of this role?

THOMAS OLIEMANS:  A lot of muscle ache and a lot of bruises, especially the side where I carry my ladder.  But at the same time, for me, opera – this is an extreme role in this sense, but opera for me is always and should always be this embodiment of both – not necessarily comedy but real physicality, real acting, real human being on stage with the best possible singing you can get.  I mean, Katie is just a – a monster and a great stage animal in that sense as well.  I mean, what she does with the wheelchair and stuff and – and still singing at that level.  But that’s what, to me, real opera is. 

Papageno is extreme.  The ladder sometimes I would like to get rid of.  But at the same time it gives a lot as well for stage energy, I think.

BEN BLISS:  Absolutely.

KATHRYN LEWEK: I think everything about this whole production is extreme and that’s what makes it really fun.  I mean, I think it’s probably the most challenging iteration of the Queen that I’ve ever sung.  Um, and we actually did it twice before together.

THOMAS OLIEMANS:  Yeah, yeah.

KATHRYN LEWEK: So, it’s really nice to join together and to do this again.

BEN BLISS:  I love it.  That was going to be my next question – is how is this Queen of the Night different than the Queen of the Night in other performances and productions you’ve been in?

KATHRYN LEWEK: Yeah.  Most – most of the time the Queen is really kind of either like a fairytale or she’s really kind of, um, you know, this beautiful, uh, you know, star shimmer Queen of the Night.  And, um, here she’s completely different.  We’re really kind of going deep into, um, a darker side of that frustration that she feels to lose her power to the patriarchy.

BEN BLISS:  Beautiful.  Well put.  And, Thomas, you have an incredibly wide repertoire in opera and recitals from baroque to cabaret, and you’re a pianist as well.  How does all that experience come together in this Papageno?

THOMAS OLIEMANS:  Uh, well, no spoilers for how in the end I get saved –

KATHRYN LEWEK: Shhh!

THOMAS OLIEMANS:  But it does come in handy that I have some other skills then than just to sing or to play.  But  again –

KATHRYN LEWEK:  It’s amazing.  (Laughs)

THOMAS OLIEMANS:   – I mean, that’s something which I really like about Simon McBurney’s approach and also Nathalie Stutzmann’s approach, who has very different sides to – both to their personalities.  Is that someone on stage, you want to see as much colors, as much quality and as much input as you can get.

BEN BLISS:  Absolutely.

THOMAS OLIEMANS:  That’s something which we really get the chance to do here.

BEN BLISS:  Well, bravi to both of you.

THOMAS OLIEMANS:  Thank you.

BEN BLISS:  Thank you so much for joining us and thank you for your performance in Act One.  We can’t wait for Act Two.

ERIN MORLEY:  Thanks, Ben.

BEN BLISS:  We’ll see you later.

Throw to Act II

BEN BLISS:  So, at the end of the previous act, Tamino and Pamina have found each other, but that is just the beginning of their adventure.  What lies ahead for them is unknown.  Here now is the action-filled concluding act of Die Zauberflöte.