A little over a month ago, Pocket Opera enjoyed a sold-out performance of its first production of the 2025 season, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. Next week the company will return to the Gunn Theatre on the lower level of the Legion of Honor Museum for the second offering. This will present more Mozart with an interesting twist or two. The full title of the program is A Pocket Magic Flute & Bastien and Bastienne.
Kenneth Kellogg and Shawnette Sulker as the title characters of “Bastien und Bastienne” (courtesy of Pocket Opera)
The Magic Flute (K. 620) was created as a two-act Singspiel (singing with spoken dialogue) involving a cast of fantastical characters, only a few of whom are mere mortals. This usually involves a generous amount of complex stage effects, which, as might be expected, is “beyond the pay grade” of Pocket Opera. As a result, the “pocket” version will be presented as an animated film that was four years in the making. The screening will be preceded by a brief “making-of” documentary. The intermission will be followed by one of Mozart’s earliest operas (composed when he was twelve years old), the K. 50 one-act “Bastien und Bastienne,” conceived as a parody of the popular “pastoral” genre. (Bastienne is a shepherdess.)
As usual, the performance will take place at the Legion of Honor. It will begin at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 13. As many readers probably know by now, the Legion of Honor is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. It is located at 100 34th Avenue, which is basically right in the center of Lincoln Park. General admission will be $84. Those age 30 and under may purchase tickets for $30. A Web page has been created for online purchases.
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