Welsh National Opera |
| Welsh National Opera- The Magic Flute , Wales Millennium Centre , May 20, 2005 |
| Performances of Mozart’s Magic Flute are always something of a surreal experience with its magical bells and flute, fantastic characters and pantomime charms. So why not go the whole hog and create a surrealist production by making Magritte your visual theme? Mozart delved into a mystical world of ancient religions and Masonic brotherhoods for his pantomime moral tale, where reality and fantasy are hard to distinguish. Magritte reveled in the juxtapositions of the familiar in extraordinary situations; delving into the meaning of dreams and exploring worlds within worlds – using recurring images to question the relationship between the actual and the imaginary, art and reality. Does it work in Magic Flute? Well, yes it does as long as you join director Dominic Cooke and his designer Julian Crouch on this surrealist journey and accept there is much in Magic Flute that the contemporary psychoanalyst would have – and probably does – have a field day in analysing. Without knowing the terminology, as it hadn’t been invented yet , did Mozart and Schikaneder conjure up an 18th century exploration of the id, ego and superego? Are we to believe that Mozart produced a Freudian tale in Freud’s home town before he was a twinkle in Mr and Mrs Freud’s eye? Ultimately the analogy doesn’t really go anywhere. But then how can it? The production opens on that famous Magritte image of a blue sky with fluffy cloud with a lidless box. There are nine doors through which Tamino is attacked by a giant prawn. The temple is inhabited by men in orange suits and bowler hats who, as the story unfolds, appear as heads protruding through the floor – out of the id? When they vote on accepting Tamino into their sect they do so by raising their orange umbrellas. The Speaker, a powerful Matthew Hargreaves, wears a white suite trimmed with that orange. The three boys are dressed in quasi German naval uniforms and at one stage cross the stage in the air cycling a fish-headed bicycle contraption. Yes, surrealists will love this one. The three ladies are perfectly cheeky and wonderful and dressing them as French maids is fine, with scarlet under petticoats to flash now and then, while Monastato, sung by Philip Lloyd Holtam, and his thugs were reminiscent of a white-faced crew of mime performers. Costume designer Kevin Pollard similarly had a field day with the Queen of the Night given her magnificent frocks for her star spangled entrances to perform those vocal fireworks. However, vocally this Flute did not live up to the excitement of the production with the exception of Rebecca Evans who delighted when she made her role debut earlier this year at Covent Garden and repeated the triumph – this time in English – at Wales Millennium Centre. I have had the greatest privilege of watching (and charting) Rebecca’s musical career from those early student and WNO days to become truly a world class soprano and now a Pamina hard to rival. Clearly the WMC audience shares that appreciation judging by their reception for the heroine of the night. I had expected Peter Wedd to shine in Mozart having been a bit of a Verdian wet blanket in Traviata in the show that started the company’s new life at WMC. But his Tamino failed to shine or delight as much as I had hoped. The production featured three singers who have come up through what is now the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World. What future stars will be created this June? Teddy Tahu Rhodes, who represented New Zealand in 1999, sang a towering, totally loveable bird catcher Papageno, bringing a cheeky Kiwi drawl to the dialogue and a big singing voice. Liz Donovan, Wales contestant in 2003, sang First Lady with a sprightly touch. Her companions, Julianne de Villiers and Antonio Sotgiu, also brought much to the whimsical side of the roles. Katarzyna Dondalka, who represented Poland in 2001, gave a mixed performance as the evil Queen of the Night, at times delightful, at times scary for the wrong reasons. In the dialogue her Polish accent was perfectly otherworldly so much so one of my friends thought she was putting it on having not read her biography. Claire Hampton sang and acted a suitably naughty and captivating Papagena while Jean-Yves Ossonce conducted Mozart with a sprightly touch. While the moment the curtain rose you just knew this show was sure to have its detractors, I had the great joy of watching the production with a total newcomer to opera who found the evening a total delight. I am sure he was not alone in the packed WMC. I happily take my bowler hat off to the cast and design team for bringing Mozart’s 200 year old masterpiece and bit of fun to yet another generation of opera lovers. There are further performances at WMC May 20, 22, 24; Grand Theatre, Swansea, June 1, 4 and North Wales Theatre, Llandudno, July 5, 7, 9. |
Reviewed by: mike smith |
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