The Magic Flute – Rouen – Review
We soon see in The Magic Flute a simple musical tale, with structure and developments so predictable that it would be ideal for introducing children to opera. Few pieces, however, present such a dense plot, full of back and forth and trial and error, far from the fluid dramatic construction and the virtuosity of the sequences that illuminate other masterpieces of Mozart. Here, the spectator changes point of view on a character without really understanding when and why the lighting on this one has changed; there, the humanism of the subject touches him, before a misogynistic projection disconcerts him. So many reversals and reversals complete to make similar The Magic Flute to a vast puzzle whose pieces would not fit together naturally, if the music, equal in its quicksilver splendor, did not put a little of its own into it. Great directors got it wrong, while others, like Patrice Chéreau, considered the task impossible.
that the choreographer Pierre Rigal took up the gauntlet by wanting, precisely, to favor a readable approach was courageous; that he does so with some success is admirable. Already given in Toulouse last December, his show presents the trick of leaving the public with his first impression: Pamina’s kidnapper, irascible guru of a brotherhood whose priests seem to have survived the sect of the order of the solar temple, Sarastro there remains the demon described at the beginning of the first act, when the Queen of the Night resembles less an evil harpy than a flouted woman. This landscape posed, the fable unfolds without downtime, supported by a direction of spirited actors, a fair amount of humor and sets which, if they sometimes yield to the influence of the Regietheater (the entrance to the temple takes the form of a service station), do not forget to bring to the evening a dose of magic which culminates in the ordeals of fire and water or during the appearance of the Queen of Night against a backdrop of scene evoking the legendary illustrations of Schinkel. Admittedly, the painting contains some dross: the spoken dialogues, read in French by actors appearing Mozart and Schikaneder, do not avoid certain lengths, and the text comments which scroll on screens betray certain facilities. But anyway, here is a production that is coherent in its purpose and successful in its realization, let’s not spoil our pleasure!
© Rouen Opera
Especially since the distribution has everything to excite. Under the balanced and dynamic leadership of Ben Glassberg, the singers give the best of themselves. The choristers ofAccented, true to their reputation, impress with each of their many appearances. The soloists are in keeping: barely thirty, Krzysztof Baczyk not only has all the bass, but also the aplomb of a handsome Sarastro while the powerful Galina Benevich has the great merit of not reducing the Queen of the Night to the correctness of the counter-fa, moreover unassailable. Accustomed to Rossinian jobs, Juan Francisco Gatell, perhaps aided by a costume taken from a plate of Tintin, brings to his Tamino a hint of Latinity that may recall Francisco Araiza. In this team without major weaknesses, from which also emerges a beautiful trio of ladies and the Orator with the bronze stamp of Simon Shibambuit is the powerful, energetic and ductile Pamina ofElisabeth Boudreault that we will notice the most, with the Papageno of Benjamin Appl, superb Liedersänger voice and incomparable slaughter, more insolent and less clumsy than what is generally found in this role. At the salutes, it is he who receives, with the musicians of theRouen-Normandy Opera Orchestra threatened with a merger by the Regional Council, the greatest ovations of an audience within had taken place many young and very young; arrive children see The Magic Flutein such conditions, it’s finally a very nice idea!