Welsh National Opera |
| Welsh National Opera- The Magic Flute , Wales Millennium Centre , May 31, 2005 |
| In every possible way this is a ‘fantastic’ experience. There are endless physiological analogies to be drawn from Mozart’s contradictory vision expressed in the opera. The vastly experienced Associate Director of the RSC, Dominic Cooke, along with his designer Julian Crouch, (who runs the aptly named Improbable Theatre) have, with the aid of Rene Magritte gone for a production of sheer magic, beauty and lots of fun! The WNO orchestra sending the seductive opening chords of Mozart’s overture out to the roof of this magnificent building is again an affirmation that artistic excellence is rapidly moving to iconic status in Wales. Back home with the WNO the extremely fine singing and acting of Rebecca Evans as Pamina reminds us that this Welsh excellence spreads itself world-wide We meet Tamino in a nine-doored room where the walls are white fluffy clouds against a bright blue sky. Monstrous lobster claws attack him through the open doors. Peter Wedd, as in Traviata, is cast as a wimpish hero. He is a handsome young man with a pleasing tenor voice but appears to allow the process of creating musical excellence to draw all the fire and blood out of his performances. I look forward to the day when he is able to relax and let himself fly to the ranks of the tenor elite. Nobody quite knows why he is there but then nobody quite knows why anyone is anywhere or exactly where they are in this opera but eventually they learn what they are there for. Wimpy Tamino is overcome by the grasping claws and falls into a faint. Rescue comes in the form of The Queen of the Night’s three French maids, who are quite a bit more than they seem. Enter a gangly very tall New Zealand ‘Ken Dodd’ figure in the form of Teddy Tahu Rhodes’ bird catcher, Papageno a towering and warm hearted performance that drives the pace of the production along with his verve for life. A star lit sky follows the thunder and Polish coloratura Katarzyna Dondalska, in one of costume designer, Kevin Pollard’s most dramatic creations, commands the stage as Queen of the Night. The quest is on: handsome prince is off to rescue beautiful Princess held captive by the baddies accompanied by his trusty friend, equipped with magic flute and equally magic music box! Most of the scenes in the production take place inside the nine-doored extremely flexible room, this does make the tale very easy to follow despite some of the strange orange and black bowler-hatted comings and goings that occur as the drama progresses. Philip Lloyd Holtam, white faced and black suited leader of the top villains, acts and sings a compelling and threatening Monostatos. His designs on Pamina are thwarted by the slightly bewildered Papageno who is able to inform her that help and endless love is on the way. Three spirits are guiding Tamino towards her. Three young boys in German sailor costume fly onto the stage in the fantastic fish-shaped wire basket of a hot-air balloon; it is to their credit that they manage their singing so well from this precarious looking position. White suited Sarastro, an exquisite well-rounded performance from Brindley Sherratt, led his orange brotherhood through the quirky umbrella ceremony, admitting Tamino into their number – great fun! Despite The Queen of the Night equipping Pamina with a dagger to kill Sarastro (it doesn’t matter that we are never quite sure why) he is instrumental in finally uniting the two young lovers. After some very bright musical banter Papageno gets together with ‘cabaret star’ Papagena. We have seen some wonderful stage pictures, heard some excellent, if not always consistent singing and at times, some awfully bad but forgivable acting and we are able to leave with the WNO fine voiced chorus reminding us that ‘Beauty to wisdom may forever be bound.’ You can participate in this joyous experience, along with the other operas in the repertoire in Swansea from the 1st until the 4th June. For other touring dates see www.wno.org.uk |
Reviewed by: Michael Kelligan |
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