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“Jun Kaneko’s ‘Magic Flute’ Is Stunningly Visual,” says Huffington Post

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July 16, 2012 | Feature

San Francisco Opera’s final production for the 2012 Summer Season, The Magic Flute, rides on an ascending scale and tops out in the highest registers of digital technology. The show’s designer, Jun Kaneko, is a clear witness to the Other Side; apparently, an all-seeing eye into this hallowed world of Mozart’s – a ponderous and preposterous realm which thrives on order and balance along with spontaneous hurly-burly….

Photo, Cory Weaver

“The key to conceptualizing a successful opera design,” says artist Jun Kanedo, “is to have a flexible and open mind and to listen to the music without any preconceived ideas. Sometimes not knowing gives us great mental freedom and opens our imagination. It is like being in a heavy fog, knowing something great is beyond it and, as it starts clearing, patiently seeing fantastic possibilities reveal themselves. My goal is to extract a design that emerges from the essence of the music rather than to decorate its story.”

Monostatos (Greg Fedderly), followed by his slaves, gets the jump on Papageno (Nathan Gunn) during the production of "The Magic Flute". The San Francisco Opera presents a new production Mozart's "The Magic Flute," which features over-the-top characters and projected animated sets. Photo: Kevin Johnson, The Chronicle / SF

More information on the Huff Post article Jun Kaneko and The Magic Flute

Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation will unveil a major project by Jun Kaneko in September 2012. The project will be located along the Principal Riverwalk at the new Hub Spot at Court Avenue and Water Street in downtown Des Moines.