In writing opera reviews you often find yourself lamenting the lack of respect or even belief that the director has in the original, and criticising the enormities perpetrated upon it. Not so with The Magic Flute, which positively cries out for interventions to make sense of the many incongruities of plot and character within. Is Sarastro or the Queen of the Night the villain of the piece? What sense do you make of the various ordeals which Pamina and Tamino have to undergo? Is it bouncy burlesque or a grave search for Masonic virtue?
It is a pleasure to report that this revival at Wilton’s by Charles Court Opera, led by John Savournin and David Eaton, gets the balance absolutely right and is a joy from start to finish. The experience of this company in pantomime and in G&S provides exactly the skill set of wit, comic timing, pointed delivery, and arch playing to and with the audience that this work needs. This is the nearest approximation you are likely to get to the hybrid genre of Singspiel in which this work belongs – full of the tomfoolery that we know Mozart so much enjoyed, while still allowing the more serious moral messages to filter through, like sunlight hitting the forest floor.
And it is in the rain forest that we find ourselves – a truly wonderful, detailed Amazonian set (originally By Simon Bejer, revived by Lucy Fowler), which sends its curling tendrils even up the toffee-twist pillars of the auditorium. There are hints of Indiana Jones. Tamino is a lost explorer, and the Queen of the Night heads an indigenous tribe threatened by Sarastro’s cult of improving Western ‘virtue’ (a colonial slant is actually an excellent way of preserving moral ambiguity all round with few out-and-out heroes or villains). Pamina and Papageno are uneasily placed between these polarities, and the action is punctuated at regular intervals by colourful interventions from the three ladies (initially) who then reappear as various other guileful threesomes, including a monster-puppet version of Papagena.
There is a tremendous pace and push to the action, which dispenses with the overture, the whole very much led by David Eaton’s vividly coloured accompaniment, which finds passion, vigour and delicacy in an upright piano that others would struggle to locate. He also somehow manages to juggle the piano and the magic bells and flute effects to much better advantage than is normally achieved in a mainstream opera house. There are many other delightful special effects, including ample avian puppetry, and zany ethnic costumes, so that no scene is without colour and invention. Revival director James Hurley has a great eye for significant detail.
There is nowhere for voices to hide with piano accompaniment, however good it is; and it is a real credit to the cast that they mostly surmount this challenge with panache. There are also some standout performances, both for acting and singing. Matthew Kellett truly inhabits the role of Papageno, finding humour and sentiment just the right side of caricature. He is well matched – by the end – with Sarah Prestwidge’s Papagena, who has so many other roles to sing before she gets there. As Tamino, Martins Smaukstelis is a bit stiff of voice and movement to start with; but that actually fits the character quite well, here played as a sort of Michael Palin figure, an innocent-abroad. Alison Langer takes her arias with a poise and strength of character that matches the gravity and sincerity of Peter Lidbetter’s Sarastro. Just as we always look out for the entrance of Wilde’s Lady Bracknell, so here we wait keenly for the two arias from the Queen of the Night. Eleri Gwilym delivered these to expectations, and more – the staging of her fearsome ‘revenge’ aria alongside the destruction of a Sarastro puppet is a delightful bit of business.
The audience around me ranged from eight to eighty, and the production touched all equally as it should, but rarely does. Many revivals make you question whether they were really necessary; but this one, at Wilton’s only for a brief run, leaves you wanting more time to return to enjoy the delights once more.
W.A.Mozart
Libretto: Adapted by David Eaton and John Savournin from Schikaneder’s original
Director: John Savournin
Musical Director: David Eaton
Cast: Joe Ashmore, Meriel Cunningham, Eleri Gwilym, Martha Jones, Matthew Kellett, Alison Langer, Peter Lidbetter, Sarah Prestwidge, Martins Smaukstelis
Photo Credit: Bill Knight
Until 8 March 2025
2 hrs 20 mins with interval