NEC’s ‘Flute’ magical but uneven

Little of that energy translated into the staging. Serious characters were often passive ciphers; comic characters were saddled with half-hearted business, scattering instead of centering their personalities. They might be archetypes — the heroic Tamino; his timorous sidekick, the bird-catching Papageno; the beautiful princess, Pamina; the light-and-dark poles of authority, Sarastro and the Queen of the Night — but even archetypes need to be embodied and projected. Physical hesitancy undermined a dramatic arc reliant on immediacy. Relationships the audience must instantly accept — Tamino and Pamina’s love at first sight, the Queen’s deep sway over her princess daughter — lacked the necessary groundwork to register.

It was a missed opportunity, given the promising singing. Soprano Hae-Ji Chang, as Pamina, was the most accomplished, her voice full of silvery color and nuance. Herman Berisso’s Papageno displayed similar elegance, an estimable match in his duets with Chang, with superb diction and glimpses of nice comic timing. Soyoung Park delivered the Queen’s pyrotechnics with crystalline ease and verve.

Some singers showed glimmers of thespian initiative. The Three Ladies (Rebecca Conviser, Anne Byrne, and Samantha Weppelmann) had funny, conspiratorial flashes of action-star sass; the Three Spirits (Kristin Brown, Kara Terry, and Lila Palmer) leavened arbitrary blocking with sparks of youthful bemusement. Alex Nishibun played the nefarious Monostatos with vigorous glee; as Papagena, Kristen Abaquin found opportunities for sharp bubbliness. And guest artist Eric D. Johnson, a professor at Syracuse University, efficiently conjured Sarastro’s gravitas with posture and stillness.