{"id":5219,"date":"2019-06-02T14:12:34","date_gmt":"2019-06-02T13:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=5219"},"modified":"2019-06-03T09:40:36","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T08:40:36","slug":"the-magic-flute-ensemble-orquesta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=5219","title":{"rendered":"The Magic Flute: Ensemble OrQuesta"},"content":{"rendered":"

St Mary in the Castle, Saturday 1 June 2019<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Mozart\u2019s Magic Flute<\/em> becomes increasingly difficult to stage as time goes on. Marcio da Silva\u2019s programme note addresses these very real concerns even if his production tends to diplomatically skirt the problems rather than address them. The strong racist elements are simply overlooked with no hint at Monostatos\u2019 origins or the overt connections to slavery. However the misogynistic elements are more deep-seated and therefore too complex to ignore.<\/p>\n

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Thankfully the musical side is so well presented that it would be easy to simply ignore the context and indulge in the beauty of the singing \u2013 and the quality across the evening is never in doubt. But the problems raised never quite go away and much of this is down to the impressive characterisation we are given<\/p>\n

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Jessica Leao\u2019s Queen of the Night is a good case in point. Magnificently sung, with the top coloratura spun off as if she has been doing it all her life, she comes across as deeply sympathetic. Her daughter has been stolen from her by a man who thinks he knows better, in a world dominated by men. As the leader of the cult Vedat Dalgiran\u2019s Sarastro is dangerously convincing – a benign populist who places his type of rationalism above all other philosophies, and who sings with a calming authority which sweeps all before it. Under the circumstances it is no wonder that Alex Gebhard\u2019s Tamino is taken in and allows himself to go through the rituals without questioning them. Only the outsider, Flavio Lauria\u2019s amiable Papageno seems to begin to see through the charade, concerned for the essentials of life \u2013 food and companionship \u2013 rather than existential philosophy. He is also the only Papageno I have ever come across able to do his own whistling \u2013 a magnificent feat! Helen May\u2019s finely sung Pamina seemed a far stronger character than the text sometimes gives her credit for and her rendition of Ach ich fuhl\u2019s<\/em> \u2013 with her back to the audience \u2013 was very effective and moving.<\/p>\n

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Within the confines of the temple Oguzhan Engin\u2019s Monostatos is something of a loose cannon. His bungled attempts at seduction never put him off and even at the very end he is intent on trying to seduce the Queen of the Night if he can\u2019t have her daughter.<\/p>\n

The orchestral ensemble was well balanced with particular respect for Neylson Crepalde who not only sang the Speaker with considerable aplomb on the first night, but also played both the side drum and Papageno\u2019s bells, while on the second night conducting the performance!<\/p>\n

Marcio da Silva\u2019s conducting of the opening night was tight and forceful, driving his singers even where some might have wanted to indulge the musical line rather more. \u00a0The only minor quibble must be with the every-present dry-ice machine which constantly clicked into action across the line of the music and occasionally made the singers invisible within its clouds.<\/p>\n

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St Mary in the Castle, Saturday 1 June 2019 Mozart\u2019s Magic Flute becomes increasingly difficult to stage as time goes on. Marcio da Silva\u2019s programme note addresses these very real concerns even if his production tends to diplomatically skirt the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5219"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5219"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5226,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5219\/revisions\/5226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}