Windham Philharmonic Presents Mozart’s The Magic Flute

Windham Philharmonic Presents Mozart’s The Magic Flute
A semi-staged collaboration with the Brattleboro Winter Carnival and The Putney School

This February, the Windham Philharmonic presents three performances of The Magic Flute, Mozart’s playful, philosophical, and delightfully strange final masterpiece. Professional opera singers, student performers, and community collaborators come together for a theatrical event designed for audiences of all ages.

This production moves fluidly between German and English, honoring Mozart’s original music while keeping the storytelling immediate and accessible. Students from The Putney School appear as the Three Spirits—guides to both Papageno and Tamino—and also populate the stage as dragons, goblins, and other fantastical figures. Youth are placed at the ethical and imaginative center of the opera, reflecting the production’s guiding insight: children often understand the world more clearly than adults.

Rather than moral absolutes, the staging emphasizes transformation, humor, and a generous view of human contradiction and interpersonal conflict.

The adult cast features well-known Mozart singers Nellie Rustick, Roseanne Ackerley, Aaron Engebreth, Charles Martin, Jenna Rae, Alan Schneider, and Mary Westbrook-Geha—artists with strong Vermont ties through their affiliation with The United Nations of Dramatic Voices (TUNDI). In keeping with the Winter Carnival setting, Frosty the Snowman also makes an appearance, an affectionate nod to the opera’s roots in popular theater.

Performance dates:
• February 21 at 2:00 pm — Latchis Theatre
• February 22 at 2:00 pm — The Putney School
• February 23 at 7:00 pm — Latchis Theatre

Admission is by donation at the door.