Jochen Schmeckenbecher, a musical-theater giant of a Papageno, was in the middle of his second-act lament this afternoon about the inconveniences of being on a reluctant hero's journey when he suddenly switched to English: "And the Raiders lost 16-3," he said, adding a bit more German dialogue (allowing audience gasps and snickers to settle down) and then launching into his aria, executing it flawlessly. Oakland's loss to Baltimore, as reported instantly (was he listening to radio?), was perhaps the only sour note of this final performance of both the San Francisco Opera's "Magic Flute" run, and of the 2000-'01 season. (But not of the Lotfi Mansouri era, as I mistakenly reported last night: the summer Verdi Festival will still take place on his watch, before Pamela Rosenberg becomes general manager.) The antithesis of opening-night jitters is the last-performance relief. In the case of the matinee "Flute" in the War Memorial, relief turned into magic. Unlike the ragged, unsatisfactory performances when this fourth outing of the 22-year-old David Hockney production opened in the fall (with a different cast), today's show was like butter. Schmeckenbecher was a vocal and comic delight - without overdoing it - and doing honor to his teacher, Kurt Moll. Another very special German singer, Franz-Josef Selig (from Koln), sang a perfect Sarastro: every note in place, a beautiful voice used to serve the music, not to show off. Raymond Very has always done well in San Francisco, but his Tamino today was several notches over past performances, and a straightforward, "manly" portrayal (in voice and acting) of the role. Praises are to be showered on the ladies as well: Mary Mills's Pamina, Suzanne Ramo's Papagena, and - in a rare show of total command of the impossible vocal requirements of the role - Mary Dunleavy's flawless Queen of the Night. And there were more, many more, on the honor roll: Ian Robertson's chorus, in one of the best performances of the season. Twyla Robinson, Elizabeth Bishop and Catherine as the outstanding Three Ladies. Even the Three Boys deserve special mention: Michael Bannett, Brian Jolly, and Ryan Irwin sang very well, showing the results of the training in the San Francisco Boys Chorus (another Robertson enterprise). William Lacey's conducting ranged from adequate to good - it could not measure up to Donald Runnicles' performances last month in the orchestral passages, but represented an actual improvement over what happened before (rather mysteriously) when it came to supporting the singers. (From my report of Runnicles' opening night: "(He) maintained a flawless sound with the orchestra and the chorus, but aria after aria, regardless of the singer, sounded slack and unfocussed.") There was nothing like that today - it all went well from beginning to end. Perhaps we should have last performances before opening nights. Janos Gereben/SF, CA [log in to unmask]