The Magic Flute - WA Mozart (1756-1791) Sydney Opera House Fri 10th Jan 2014
Written in the last months of Mozart’s short life, Die Zauberflöte is one of the great
works for the operatic stage. A moralist
love story involving Masonic rituals and themes it is quite long and has been
the subject of many cuts. And this
cut-down version is successful, as one I saw at Glyndebourne many years ago
which replaced the dialogue with sign language and titles. That said, to cut the famous portrait aria in
half seems over-the-top, like cutting Shakespeare or Holy Scriptures. More about this condensed version below.
Unlike most of his works, Mozart chose some of the highest and some of
the lowest parts for the voice in Magic Flute.
It was written for an enthusiastic impresario who was also an amateur
singer, taking the part of the bird catcher Papageno himself, here sung and
acted admirably again by Andrew Jones.
One vocal surprise was Sarastro, leader of the Brotherhood, ably played
by African American bass Morris Robinson.
He has a modest but pleasant upper register but several booming basso
notes, all except for that one last note which only Kurt Moll seems to be able
to sing these days (aged 75 and still singing well). Mr Robinson’s elegant presence and dignity was matched by
his musicianship.
The Queen of Night was Milica Ilic who got absolutely all of the notes
and most of the high-tension drama. John
Longmuir is one of those rare tenors who can sing Tamino’s taxing vocals yet there is less beauty,
poise and regal presence to his performance as there might be. Pamina was sung more than adequately by Taryn
Fiebig. Kanen Breen made a brilliantly
wicked Monostatos.
It was a night of catching up with old friends including a neglected (by
me) Godchild who has grown into a beautiful young woman (and who coincidentally
majored in playing the flute!). It would
not be January in Sydney without Geoffrey Robertson QC in the first night
crowd. Meantime, some of Sydney’s top barristers are probably frequenting
Covent Garden! Governor Marie Bashir was
Patron of Honour. At interval Bronwyn
Bishop MP related some Neanderthal views on addiction issues and was good
enough to spend five minutes telling me how to do my job better … which would be amusing except that some in
her party are now making retrograde decisions which will impinge negatively on
Australian public health for years to come in my estimation. What a shame they cannot look dispassionately
on the use of alcohol and other drugs by fellow citizens … and resist the strong influence of the
all-powerful drinks and tobacco lobby.
The opera was well received and there was even a little audience
participation with a child responding ‘one’, ‘two’, ‘three’ to Papageno’s whistle calls (or was it a “plant”?). I would
not be doing the pedantic reviewer’s job if I did not mention the line in the opera
about the flute being hewn out of mature oak when in fact the flute used was
silver metal like all modern instruments.
Less forgivable was a deafening premature thunder clap in the middle of
Sarastro’s
aria; also the three Royal ladies (sung brilliantly by Ms’s Ede, Pendry and D. Matthews) were trapped
momentarily in a perspex Tardis time warp as a certain circular curtain refused
to release them.
Now for the really critical part: The program states incorrectly that
this is “from
the original production of The Magic Flute by the Metropolitan Opera,
New York.” In fact it is closer to the later Children’s version of that production (which had no
intermission) and, as above, is substantially cut-down. This was not mentioned in the season
brochure, nor on the evening cast list and synopsis. A long-time subscriber friend told me he was
not going as “The
Flute is just so long” … yet he would have been pleasantly surprised
that it is not a late night and most of his avowed ‘favourite arias’ were included. Others, like three German students sitting in
front of me, might be expecting an extra half hour or so of Mozart and
Schikaneder and be sorely disappointed. “Honesty is the best policy” would be my advice (not that the company
seems to take advice).
This issue is yet another sign of poor management by Australia’s national opera company which has lost its
way over a decade now. After re-reading
a speech given by the artistic director from 2011 it is a wonder the company is
in business at all ( http://opera.org.au/discover/features/lyndon_terracini_pgh_address
). It contains many contradictions and
seems confused and accusatory. Terracini
fails to demonstrate any real insight into the art form … and his attempt to rationalise the ethnic
diversity in opera is frankly embarrassing, presuming that there is just one
Asian way of dying on stage as if Asia was a single country. I am not so vain to think that I am part of “the club” which he repeatedly refers to as if it were his
mortal enemy. Impresarios always have to
try to please many different factions.
Despite all this, Magic Flute is a delightful operatic outing and highly
recommended for anyone who has not yet seen the Taymor version of this
masterpiece. There are 25 performances
up to mid-March. Two casts allow
back-to-back performances, something that is not done very often, but once worked
well for Aida in Sydney. It depends
critically on the quality and versatility of the singers. One only hopes that the second cast,
performing just hours later on the Saturday matinee, were as good as for
opening night. This reviewer is not up
to both, sorry to say.
Nor did I attend the season opening a week earlier as it was yet another
re-run of La Boheme with singers who we had mostly heard before recently. The Boheme may have been ideal for first time
opera goers. But in his speech, Mr Terracini
lectures old-timers that we should not complain at re-runs of the great works
since they are indeed great works (same as this Flute production from 2 years
ago). Yet he fails to mention that once
upon a time these re-runs regularly presented some of the greatest names in
world opera. Luciano Pavarotti was in
one such re-run on this very stage and in La Boheme. By contrast, it is intriguing and smacks of a
contractual error that world class baritone Giorgio Caoduro is playing the role
of Marcello in Sydney. While it is a
crucial role in Boheme, many Australian baritones could have sung it adequately
… so for a top international
star to perform a role without as much as one aria seems wrong headed. Caoduro sings Figaro, Enrico, Belcore and
other top roles all around the world according to his web page. There is also the risk that he may out class
the other singers on the stage. Just
another sign of the lack of balance and judgment one might hope for in mature
opera casting.
In short it seems that much of what the company does these days is “side shows” rather than core grand opera. “Opera on the Harbour” is a side show using amplified singing which
is not opera in my book (same for the Domain opera - but at least that is free
and a one-off). Likewise ‘Opera on the Beach’.
About half of the season now seems to be musical theatre, of little
relevance to the art of grand opera either.
While it is certainly grand opera, The Ring in Melbourne was
wonderful for southerners but can hardly be considered a benefit to Sydney-siders. Would they do Il Trittico in both cities to ‘make up’? I don’t think so.
Is it too late to resurrect a true, high quality opera company? Or has management pushed their public and
their artists beyond the point of no return?
They have certainly lost much of their subscriber base. Do they employ any resident great opera
singers? And their grand opera output is
almost unrecognisable both in quality and quantity from the many decades of
marvellous, varied, international standard opera in Sydney, Melbourne and
beyond.
Notes by Andrew
Byrne ..
