Ruth Sullivan Debuted Foley Sounds in Met's Zauberflöte in 2022-2023

Summary: English Foley artist Ruth Sullivan debuted Foley sounds onstage in Simon McBurney's new Die Zauberflöte production in the 2022-2023 Met Opera season.

Ruth Sullivan made her Met Opera debut in the 2022-2023 season as a Foley artist in Simon McBurney's new production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte; illustration by Jenny Kroik: Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera, via Twitter May 23, 2023

English Foley artist Ruth Sullivan debuted Foley sounds onstage in Met Opera's presentation of Simon McBurney's new production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte in the 2022-2023 season.

Classical Era composer Wolfgang Mozart (Jan. 27, 1756-Dec. 5, 1791) collaborated with Bavarian baritone, impresario, librettist and playwright Johann Joseph Schickeneder (Sep. 1, 1751-Sep. 21, 1812) in creating Die Zauberflöte, a fairytale opera with a target audience of ordinary people. Their Freemason-themed opera premiered Sep. 30, 1791, in Wieden, an area south of central Vienna. Theater auf der Wieden was under Schickeneder's directorship. The librettist and director, whose stage name was Emanuel Schickaneder, performed as Papageno in the premiere while Mozart conducted the orchestra.

One hundred eight and one half years (108 years 6 months) after Mozart and Schickaneder's premiere, Die Zauberflöte premiered Friday, March 30, 1900, at the Metropolitan Opera's first opera house, located at 1411 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan's Garment District. The opera company offered five Italian-language performances of Mozart's last opera.

In the 2022-23 season, Met Opera scheduled five late spring and four early summer performances of Simon McBurney's new production of Die Zauberflöte. The English director's Met Opera debut occurred Friday, May 19, 2023, along with his new Mozart production, in the opera company's 478th performance of Die Zauberflöte.

McBurney's first debut of his Die Zauberflöte production had occurred in 2012 at De Nederlandse Opera (DNO; Dutch National Opera) in Amsterdam, North Holland province, northwestern Netherlands. McBurney's Die Zauberflöte received 10 performances in Dutch National Opera's 2012-2013 season. The innovative production debuted Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012. Its second through 10th, closing performances took place Sunday, Dec. 9; Wednesday, Dec. 12; Friday, Dec. 14; Monday, Dec. 17; Wednesday, Dec. 19; Friday, Dec. 21; Tuesday, Dec. 25; Thursday, Dec. 27; and Sunday, Dec. 30.

In conceptualizing Mozart's fairytale opera, McBurney consulted with his set designer, Michael Levine (born Nov. 6, 1961). The Canadian set and costume designer's Met Opera debut had occurred Thursday, March 13, 1997, in the opera company's 104th performance of Eugene Onegin by Russian late Romantic era composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (May 7, 1840-Nov. 6, 1893). Levine's Met Opera debut preceded Die Zauberflöte's December 2012 debut as a new McBurney production at DNO by 15 years eight and three-fourths months (15 years 8 months 22 days) and its debut as McBurney's first Met Opera production by approximately 26 years 2 months one week (26 years 2 months 6 days).

Ruth Sullivan created Foley sounds onstage in small space visible to audience during performances of Simon McBurney's new production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte in Met Opera's 2022-2023 season: The Metropolitan Opera, via Facebook May 10, 2023

McBurney and Levine sought to capture "that sense of excitement" generated in the opera's "first audience" in 1791 by Mozart's "finally writing a popular piece for a popular audience," explained McBurney in "Die Zauberflöte: Creative Team Feature," uploaded to YouTube June 6, 2023, by Metropolitan Opera. As the often onstage presence of the orchestra back then created "a very intimate relationship between the musicians and the singers," McBurney and Levine imagined a similar rapport by raising Met Opera's orchestra pit.

Also, Theater auf der Wieden was designed as "a very modern theater," with "the latest technology" for "extraordinary . . . scene changes . . . and sound effects." Accordingly, McBurney and Levine envisioned the immediacy of onstage sound-making by a visible Foley artist and of an onsite visual artist's chalkboard drawings and visuals instantly projected onto the stage's screens. As such, visual artist Blake Habermann and Foley artist Ruth Sullivan framed the stage's mobile platform, with spotlighted spaces to the audience's left and right, respectively.

Ruth Sullivan made her Met Opera debut as a Foley artist in the new production's opening night. Performer and visual artist Blake Habermann had made his Met Opera debut Monday, Jan. 25, 2016, as a member of Canio's troupe in the opera company's 722nd performance of Pagliacci by Italian opera composer and librettist Ruggero Leoncavallo (April 23, 1857-Aug. 9, 1919).

As a Foley artist, Ruth Sullivan realistically replicated the production's ambient sounds with a stock of props composed of everyday objects. The Foley designation namesakes American sound effects artist Jack Donovan Foley (April 12, 1891-Nov. 9, 1967), who finessed the realistic, synchronous replication of background sounds with evocatively similar-sounding unrelated paraphernalia.

Papageno's interaction with birds early in the production was expressed by Sullivan by way of gardening gloves, as she demonstrated for McBurney in Met Opera's "Die Zauberflöte: Creative Team Feature." With two pairs of gardening gloves in each hand, she shook her hands as she raised her arms to mimic the flutterings of birds as they flew away from Papageno. She assessed that her collection of "lovely props" successfully represented the Foley world's "real mix of high tech and very low tech."

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Ruth Sullivan made her Met Opera debut in the 2022-2023 season as a Foley artist in Simon McBurney's new production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte; illustration by Jenny Kroik: Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera, via Twitter May 23, 2023, @ https://twitter.com/MetOpera/status/1666784518370390018

Ruth Sullivan created Foley sounds onstage in small space visible to audience during performances of Simon McBurney's new production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte in Met Opera's 2022-2023 season: The Metropolitan Opera, via Facebook May 10, 2023, @ https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=790446789116759&set=a.541920067302767

Metropolitan Opera. "Die Zauberflöte: Creative Team Feature." YouTube. June 6, 2023.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXeILugoDEc

For further information:

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Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=356273

"Debuts: Marianna Tarassova, Irina Arkhipova, Antonio Pappano, Robert Carsen, Michael Levine, Jean Kalman, Serge Bennathan." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 327650 New Production Eugene Onegin {104} Metropolitan Opera House: 03/13/1997. (Debuts: Marianna Tarassova, Irina Arkhipova, Antonio Pappano, Robert Carsen, Michael Levine, Jean Kalman, Serge Bennathan Review). Metropolitan Opera House March 13, 1997 New Production.
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"Debuts: Thomas Oliemans, Ruth Sullivan, Simon McBurney, Nicky Gillibrand, Gareth Fry, Rachael Hewer." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 357905 New Production Die Zauberflöte {478} Metropolitan Opera House: 5/19/2023, Broadcast (Broadcast Debuts: Thomas Oliemans, Ruth Sullivan, Simon McBurney, Nicky Gillibrand, Gareth Fry, Rachael Hewer). Metropolitan Opera House May 19, 2023 New Production.
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The Metropolitan Opera. "As rehearsals continue for Simon McBurney’s daring new production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, we’re getting a brand-new perspective of the Met stage! McBurney’s innovative staging has MET Orchestra Musicians Principal Flute Seth Morris playing on stage and live visual art and sound effects by Blake Habermann and Foley artist Ruth Sullivan. The focal point of the scenery is a large, elevated platform, seen here with tenor Lawrence Brownlee and baritone Thomas Oliemans, as Tamino and Papageno, alongside the three ladies. Maestro Nathalie Stutzmann conducts Die Zauberflöte beginning May 19: bit.ly/3NZK1ig. In cinemas (bit.ly/3y39jGV) and Live at Home (bit.ly/3eFQHFR) on June 3. Photos by Jonathan Tichler / Met Opera." Facebook. May 10, 2023.
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