Southeastern Louisiana University’s Opera/Music Theatre Workshop worked tirelessly to present Mozart’s last opera “The Magic Flute.” It was performed nightly at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 7 through Saturday, March 10  in Pottle Music Building Auditorium.

In “The Magic Flute,” the main character Prince Tamino is faced with the task of rescuing the Queen of Night’s daughter, Pamina, who was kidnapped by her nemesis, Sarastro. Tamino agrees to rescue her, and the Queen’s Ladies give him a magical flute to help him on his mission.

“Playing Tamino was an incredible challenge,” said Joshua Williams, senior vocal performance major who played Tamino for the performances on Thursday and Saturday. “The role itself was actually meant for somebody that’s maybe 26 to 32 years old, so preparing for that was just as stressful as it would sound like it was. It took a lot of personal assurance as far as getting the emotions down and everything like that. It’s not just going on stage and singing. It’s Mozart so it’s really complicated. You’re totally exposed and he leaves you totally by yourself, so if you don’t do your job on your end with practicing and getting the musical voice part going, you’re just not going to live up to the role. That was incredibly stressful and it took the whole semester of practicing to get that ready, but I guess it turned out okay in the end.”

In the forest, Tamino meets Papageno, a green bird-catcher who only wants to find his true love. Papageno agrees to help Tamino rescue Pamina, and throughout the opera, Papageno draws many laughs from the crowd.

“I think it was fantastic tonight,” said Damian Faul, the senior vocal performance major who played Papageno in every performance. “I’ve been wanting to sing this since my freshman year just because the character is so colorful and he’s really the tender part of the show. It’s really hard to listen to Tamino and Pamina because it’s so serious, but Papageno is so light-hearted. I really enjoyed playing that. Everything about it was wonderful, the music, the characters, the make-up, the costumes. It’s been really fun, and I graduate in May, so it’s good this is my last show because it’s all positive.”

After Pamina and Tamino meet, they are promised to each other. During Tamino’s vow of silence later, however, Pamina is severely hurt by his refusal to speak to her. Pamina ultimately ends up joining her love Tamino in his final tests to join Sarastro’s order. After successfully traveling through the caves of fire and water, Tamino and Pamina are welcomed into the Hall of Wisdom at the end of “The Magic Flute.”

 “I thought it was a bright and colorful performance done by an outstanding and comedic cast,” said Dustin Williams, a freshman majoring in computer science.

 “There’s a lot of practice and a lot of rehearsal and concentration that goes into preparing for this type of role,” said Sarah Bertrand, the junior vocal performance major who played Pamina every night. “I think my favorite part of the character is just the music and the costumes. It’s all so beautiful. I mean the whole show is just very magical, and I just love the whole show.”

“The Magic Flute” came together under conductor Charles Effler, stage director Victoria Crutchfield, set designer Steve Schepker, costume designer Cody Stockstill and a cast of superb student performers.