Magic Flute: Reviewer Resorts to Rhyme

I’ve been struggling to make full sentences of this review, the performance was so image-heavy. So I thought I’d start out with some images:

Rolling sky, luscious mountains, fog and mist and forests green,
lovers through the landscape running,
clowns and antics in their dream.

Now that I have that out of my system...

Vancouver Opera’s Magic Flute is a vivid spectacle. Images projected on a layered scrim swirl and crescendo with the overture, stirring up my emotions then stilling down into a forest or quiet ocean backdrop. The set is truly beautiful and deceptively simple. Maximum use is made out of an economical design creating a versatile variety of lavish worlds in no time at all. The bright and beautiful costumes complete the illusion and we are transported into another world. As you can tell I was truly blown away by the aesthetic beauty of this production.

The Magic Flute was a great choice of opera to adapt to include First Nations culture although I feel Mozart’s broad characters and storyline could have benefitted from a bit more detail being filled in. The symbolism, speech, costumes and parallel elements that were added were incredibly effective and helped me relate to the somewhat frothy subject matter. That’s the problem with singing in English (or having English subtitles), it means you know just how petty and drawn out the story really is. And sexist, but I’m not even going to go into that today.

The performers all had lovely voices, although I did struggle to hear Michael Barret as Monostatos. I’m not a huge fan of the extremely high soprano melodies, although they were executed skillfully. The lovers, Simone Osborne as Pamina and John Tessier as Tamino were clear and strong. Joshua Hopkins as Papageno was engaging and some of the audience even answered him in one of the more comedic moments! It almost felt like children’s theatre. I want to especially mention Philip Ens as Sarastro, he has one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard. Some of his song was a bit low, but his speech was like chocolate in my ears.

During intermission I overheard another audience member say: “The English is a bit grating on the ear, isn’t it?” I didn’t find the sound of the language grating but I did wonder about how my experience would have been different if I didn’t understand what was being said. I don’t think my ignorance of the actual words would have been able to hide the simplicity and repetitive formula of the plot. Without an intellectual understanding of the story I would really needed to have been drawn in emotionally to stay engaged enough to understand the story on a non-verbal level. At first I thought I was sitting too far back to fully appreciate any emotional investment the performers may be experiencing, but then I remembered seeing Sarah Slean perform earlier this week and how her whole body to the very core and extremes of her being would radiate outwards how caught up she was in the music or song. True emotional connection communicates itself through the voice and the body and captures even the audience member way in the back row. If that had been present I wouldn’t have minded how broad the plot or simple the characters.

As it was the story was light and amusing, the design jaw-dropping, the performances strong if not fully inspired and the music pleasant. It was a bit long, but I am very glad I went.