Community over monarchy. That is the theme of the current production onstage at Seattle Opera, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Magic Flute. In this opera, the Queen of the Night seeks to retrieve her daughter Pamina from the high priest and magician Sarastro, and recruits the help of Prince Tamino — but instead, the Prince, Pamina, and their companion Papageno decide to undertake a series of trials in order to improve both themselves and their society.
Playing the role of Prince Tamino is tenor Duke Kim, whose previous appearances at Seattle Opera include the role of Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville, and as a soloist in Seattle Opera’s 60th Anniversary Concert & Gala. “My favorite moment in The Barber of Seville was the knee slide I got to do across the stage,” Kim said. “It was towards the end of the opera, when I got to run across then slide on the ground, all the way to where Rosina was on the other side of the stage.”
Kim has been preparing for the role of Prince Tamino for many years. “In 2020, I learned the role of Tamino as a study cover for Santa Fe Opera,” he reported. “Unfortunately, the season was cancelled because of Covid, but what I learned then stuck with me.”
Recently, he had the opportunity to bring this preparation to fruition by performing the role at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. “I loved the set and the puppetry of that production,” he said. “The visuals are amazing from the audience’s perspective.”
Seattle audiences will see a different staging, with the main difference from the New York production being the movement of the singers. “In the Met production, we were able to move freely,” he said. “For this Seattle production, every move has to be calculated, and we must follow the original version that was done in 2012 in Berlin, because we have to be in sync with the animations that are projected on top of us.”
Kim is particularly excited about singing in German again. “When I was a child, I lived in a little town called Königstein near Frankfurt, so the language is really close to my heart,” Kim said. “Singing in German brings back fond memories that I had in Germany.”
Assisting Prince Tamino in meeting his challenges are the three spirit genies of The Magic Flute, one of whom is played by young Anthony Kim, (no relation to Duke Kim), as the genies lead the Prince to Sarastro’s camp and accompany him to join Pamina. “The Third Genie’s songs are actually very low-key for me, so I have to only use chest voice, and it made me worried since I have never used chest voice on stage and know that my chest voice is not as loud as my head voice,” Anthony said. “But I am enjoying this new challenge.”
Anthony has been singing since his earliest years. “When I was around three years old, I liked to sing the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ from Handel’s Messiah and ‘Ode to Joy’ from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9,” he said, sharing that he watched a YouTube video of “Ode to Joy” several times a day.
A few years later, at age seven, Anthony Kim attended Seattle Symphony’s Handel’s Messiah concert. “I loved it and hoped to have a chance to sing it one day,” he reminisced. “Then, in December 2023, I actually sang the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ with Joyce DiDonato at the Vienna Concert House, and it was broadcast on national TV in over ten European countries during the Christmas season!”
But that was just the beginning. “I also had the opportunity to sing it at St. James Cathedral and Sacred Heart Church a few months later,” he said. “So, I actually sang it three times in three cities, Vienna, Seattle, and Bellevue!”
That doesn’t mean it was easy for Anthony to get his current role in The Magic Flute. “On the audition day, my voice was totally broken,” he admitted. “I vomited a lot and my voice didn’t go up more than G5 while normally I can sing up to A6.”
He didn’t have the volume he needed to project his vocalization. “If I sang louder, my voice would break,” he recalled. “So during the audition, I was not even able to sing the song that I prepared to the end.”
Fortunately, Anthony had performed two prior roles at Seattle Opera: Cantoria in Tosca, and Deputy Feature in Robin Hood, and his talent was known to Seattle Opera staff. “I met people at the Seattle Opera for the first time through the Seattle Opera Youth Opera Program,” he said. “The Youth Opera Program made the Seattle Opera feel like a comfortable place.”
Robin Hood was Anthony’s first performance at the Seattle Opera, but his role in Tosca was similar to his real-life role as an altar server and chorister at church. “The last Tosca at the Seattle Opera was in 2021, during the pandemic,” he said. “So the Seattle Opera recorded a video of Tosca at St. James Cathedral, and it was available on YouTube. I was so glad to see the cathedral where I sing featured in a Seattle Opera project.”
Anthony has also had multiple engagements as a soloist with the Vienna Boys Choir, which operates as a 4-year boarding school for Grades 5 through 8. “The reason it became a school is that it was difficult for the boys to manage all the concerts and schedules while attending regular schools,” Anthony explained. “So they established a middle school at Augarten Palace in Vienna with their own curriculum, which includes two trimesters focused on study and one trimester dedicated to a world tour each year.”
After auditioning for the Vienna Boys Choir in 2023, Anthony completed a four-week trial period and then decided to join the Choir as the only U.S. member. “A month after joining as an official member, I sang as a soloist at the Spanische Hofreitschule,” he said, reporting that he performed in over forty concerts that year. “At the Christmas concert at Mupa, Budapest, I sang my last solo song and received standing ovations.”
But he decided to return home to the U.S. after that Christmas season. “It was too challenging for an 11-year-old boy to stay alone in a boarding school in a foreign country,” he said. “Although there were some boys from other countries, most were with their parents and spent weekends with them. I, however, was left alone in the boarding school and had to endure lonely weekends.”
Now, in addition to performing with Seattle Opera, Anthony plays the organ, piano, and violin, and sings in three choirs, including St. James Cathedral, Sacred Heart Church, and the International School choir. “It is not easy to manage schoolwork because sometimes it’s after 10 p.m. when I come home from my music lessons or rehearsals,” he said. “Sometimes, it’s a little bit sad when I don’t have enough time to play video games with my friends.”
Despite the challenges, later this year both Kims have calendars full of plans and dreams, and Duke Kim will sing at Irish National Opera and Santa Fe Opera. “In Ireland, I will be singing Nemorino in The Elixir of Love, which I have sung in my senior year of undergrad,” he shared. “That was ten years ago, so I cannot wait to see how differently I am going to sing that role.”
He’ll also be performing in Rigoletto this year. “I am especially excited about singing the Duke at the Santa Fe Opera,” Duke Kim said, “since it has been a dream role of mine for a long time.”
Meanwhile, Anthony Kim would like to pursue more church music. “I enjoyed singing Fauré’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Mass, and Schubert’s Mass,” he said. “I also really like playing the organ.”
Plus, Anthony enjoys computers and making videos, and would like to travel to Europe to see Pope Francis. “I aspire to visit the Vatican and sing from my heart for him,” Anthony said.
‘The Magic Flute’ runs February 22 through March 9 at Seattle Opera, McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer Street, Seattle.
