Magic Flute

Jun Kaneko’s most recent, and most ambitious, opera design came when the San Francisco Opera commissioned him to apply his creative ingenuity to their 2012 production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. This production brought a scale of animated projection that had never before been done in opera, utilizing seven screens and animated sequences of continuous projection, synchronized with the music, over the course of the three hour production. To achieve this monumental task, sequential drawings of the scenery were sketched on paper, photographed, then digitally made continuous across the virtual spaces of the screens, again with the crucial assistance of Clark Creative Group. Meanwhile, Kaneko’s costume designs were meticulously brought to life by the San Francisco Opera Costume Shop, where artisans were careful to approach each piece as a sculpture rather than just a garment. Milliners, dyers, painters, leather workers, drapers, and seamsters are among the many artisans who contributed to bringing more than 100 of the artist’s costume designs to fruition. 

Reflecting on his experience designing The Magic Flute, Kaneko explains that “integrating all of the synchronous connecting elements in an opera is the most difficult challenge in its design. My challenge is to find a way to shrink the distance between the music and the visual elements and to conceive visuals that fuse the music and design as one experience.”

Kaneko’s interpretation of The Magic Flute has been performed by the San Francisco Opera, San Francisco, CA (2015); Washington National Opera, Kennedy Center, Washington D.C (2014); Opera Carolina, Charlotte, NC (2013); Kansas City Lyric Opera, MO (2013); Opera Omaha, Omaha, NE (2013); and San Francisco Opera, San Francisco, CA (2012).