Media Release Backgrounder

Additional information pertaining to
2006 Banff Summer Arts Festival turns a spotlight on innovative new work and rediscovered favourites

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For immediate release
April 27, 2006

The Magic Flute

August 9 and 11 at 7:30 p.m.
August 13 at 2:00 p.m.
Eric Harvie Theatre — The Banff Centre

Canada’s leading young opera singers will present Mozart’s masterwork The Magic Flute as part of the 2006 Festival’s mainstage opera program. Directed by acclaimed stage director Kelly Robinson and conducted by Jean-Marie Zeitouni, performances will feature the 45-piece Banff Festival Orchestra, in a collaboration between theatre and music at The Banff Centre. A showcase for Canada’s top emerging opera artists, The Magic Flute will be staged as part of the Centre’s Opera as Theatre program, which brings young singers to Banff for intensive workshops in voice, movement, and acting, culminating in a major production.

In The Magic Flute, Prince Tamino falls instantly in love with Pamina, daughter of the Queen of The Night, when he sees her picture, but she is a captive in the mysterious realm of the sage Sarastro. Tamino and the bird-catcher Papageno embark on a quest to free Pamina, through trials of silence, fire, and water. Composed by Mozart, with librettist Emanuel Schickaneder, The Magic Flute is one of the most celebrated operas in the history of the genre.

Kelly Robinson, stage director

Stage director for the premiere of the original opera Filumena in 2003, as well as the 2005 production as part of the National Arts Centre’s Alberta Scene festival and the 2005 remount at the Banff Summer Arts Festival, Robinson is the director of creative development for Mirvish Productions in Toronto, and has directed plays, musicals, and opera in cities across Canada and the United States. His productions have appeared onstage at the Stratford Festival, London’s West End, the National Arts Centre, and New York’s Palace Theatre.

Jean-Marie Zeitouni, conductor

In 2004, Jean-Marie Zeitouni was appointed associate conductor of the Quebec-based Les Violons du Roy after three seasons with the ensemble as Conductor in Residence. He is associate conductor and chorus master at l’Opéra de Montréal (since 2002) and music director of their young artist program. Recent conducting highlights include Chabrier’s l’Étoile, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, and Donizetti’s Don Pasquale with l’Opéra de Montréal, Donizetti’s l’Elisir d’Amore with l’Opéra de Québec, and John Estacio and John Murrell’s Filumena at the Banff Summer Arts Festival.