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Conductor: Sir Colin Davis | Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Label: Opus Arte

Subtitle: English, French, Spanish

Genre: Opera

Covent Garden’s 2003 production of The Magic Flute, designed by John F. Macfarlane, directed by David McVicar, and conducted by Sir Colin Davis, is magnificent from a strictly musical standpoint. More than that, it’s vastly entertaining. The comedic elements of the story integrate far more comfortably than is often the case with Schikaneder’s high-minded (if vague) theme of a quest for enlightenment, particularly in the second act. The audience at this January 2003 performance laughs a great deal. Visually, the production is a feast, yet it doesn’t distract from the music, as does Julie Taymor’s current design in New York. The intention was to maintain an 18th-century feel but to play freely with that aesthetic: the costumes, for instance, are an imaginative mix of the Baroque, some sci-fi (The Three Ladies), with a little English Music Hall thrown in (Papageno wears a sweater vest with embroidered ducks and preposterous fowl-inspired headgear).

The cast is indeed superb, including both seasoned pros—Franz-Joseph Selig, Simon Keenlyside, and Thomas Allen (lavishly cast in the small role of the Speaker of the Temple)—and up-and-coming younger singers, most notably the remarkable Diana Damrau, who manages the vocal acrobatics of the Queen of the Night’s first aria while constantly on the move. Dorothea Röschmann is an appealing, very feminine Pamina: her second act “Ach ich fühls, es ist verschwunden,” one of Mozart’s finest, is exquisitely rendered. Her intended, Will Hartmann, has a voice that occasionally takes on a slightly leathery quality, but he’s an assertive and expressive leading man. Simon Keenlyside’s pleasing baritone is a given, but mostly he seems to be enjoying the opportunities for physical comedy that this production affords him. Keenlyside’s antics are taken up a notch with the arrival of a Papagena (Ailish Tynan) who is left out of The Benny Hill Show. Adrian Thompson’s foppish Monostatos is clearly not a villain to be taken too seriously and Selig’s plushly sung Sarastro provides a solid moral core to act II. The Three Ladies feel like extensions of the Queen’s will, as they should, and The Three Boys remind us that the English boy chorister tradition is alive and well.

Sir Colin Davis, associated with Mozart’s operas throughout his long career, leads with grace and drive, shaping the ensemble numbers effectively. The spoken dialogue isn’t treated as something to be rushed through; listening to the Queen of the Night’s speech to Pamina in the second act, you’d think you were at a West End theater. Chorus and orchestra perform as expected at the Royal Opera and the supernumeraries that are (intentionally) in view to manipulate the giant serpent at the beginning of the opera and accomplish other tasks throughout the evening do so with dramatic flair.

Cast:

Will Hartmann (Tamino)

Dorothea Röschmann (Pamina)

Diana Damrau (Queen of the Night)

Franz-Josef Selig (Sarastro)

Simon Keenlyside (Papageno)

Ailish Tynan (Papagena)

Adrian Thompson (Monostatos)

Gillian Webster (First Lady)

Christine Rice (Second Lady

Yvonne Howard (Third Lady)

Thomas Allen (Speaker of the Temple)

Works on This Recording:

1. Die Zauberflöte, K 620 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Performer: Diana Damrau (Soprano), Will Hartmann (Tenor), Franz-Josef Selig (Bass),

Dorothea Röschmann (Soprano), Simon Keenlyside (Baritone)

Conductor: Sir Colin Davis

Orchestra/Ensemble: Royal Opera House Covent Garden Orchestra, Royal Opera House Covent Garden Chorus

Period: Classical

Written: 1791; Vienna, Austria

Read More: http://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Zauberflote-Blu-ray-Simon-Keenlyside/dp/B00142X56Y

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Rating:
2.5 out of 5 by Book123