Sarastro - Ante Jerkunica
Koningin van de nacht - Hasmik Torosyan
Tamino - Adam Smith
Pamina - Mirella Hagen
Papageno - Josef Wagner
Papagena - Morgane Heyse
Monostatos - Michael J. Scott
Erste Dame - Hanne Roos
Zweite Dame - Tineke Van Ingelgem
Dritte Dame - Raehann Bryce-Davis
Sprecher/Erster Priester/Zweiter Geharnischter - Evgeny Solodovnikov
Zweiter Priester/Erster Geharnischter - Stephan Adriaens
Symfonisch Orkest Opera Vlaanderen
Koningin van de nacht - Hasmik Torosyan
Tamino - Adam Smith
Pamina - Mirella Hagen
Papageno - Josef Wagner
Papagena - Morgane Heyse
Monostatos - Michael J. Scott
Erste Dame - Hanne Roos
Zweite Dame - Tineke Van Ingelgem
Dritte Dame - Raehann Bryce-Davis
Sprecher/Erster Priester/Zweiter Geharnischter - Evgeny Solodovnikov
Zweiter Priester/Erster Geharnischter - Stephan Adriaens
Symfonisch Orkest Opera Vlaanderen
Koor Opera Vlaanderen
Jan Schweiger (Conductor)
David Hermann (Director)
Instead of portraying Magic Flute as a positive and fairy tale like singspiel, Hermann's conceptual approach focuses on the manipulative and psychopathic aspects. Normality is absent from the fractions of Sarastro and Queen of the Night. The former stands for an abusive predator whereas the latter displays eccentricity. Their associates are also mentally unstable, brutal and, especially Papageno, a victim as results. Tamino's quest is not about affiliating to an organisation claiming to uphold righteous and faith, but to save the loved ones from further harm and torture. Although metaphorical realism offers a different and insightful understanding of symbolism, it takes away the work's attraction of mass appeal with an intellectual exercise. The rethink satisfies connoisseurs but departs from the idea of messaging sophisticated ideas through humour and underlying norms. Sometimes the accessible music becomes an irony or even soundtrack than carrying the actual meanings. As a whole the interpretation is convincing largely that display an establishment will meet its end after wielding power unfairly over individuals, but leaves the masonic perspective without an address. It makes an inconclusive examination of the work and fell short from providing the insight.
The orchestra was a mixture of modern and replicas of period instruments, including the natural brass. It made a brighter tone colour and leaner texture. Schweiger adopted a broad tempo in conducting the Adagio opening alike a solemn fanfare. Instead of hurrying along the allegro, his conducting kept a natural flow of tempo to dramatise the music and shaped it like a dance with momentum. First scene happened in an underground sewage with an exploding power generator that knocked Tamino unconscious. Instead of a lame snake, the explosion was the impact more immediate. Smith's, as Pamino, diction was not audibly convincing even with a good vocal projection. Vibrato was rather heavy and not a relaxing switch in tessitura. The three dames possessed the right timbres for the roles, delivered a good bodied of vocal volume in their trio and managed the swift tempo adopted by the orchestra. Papageno entered the sewage by climbing the hanging ropes and behaving strangely with hissing. Tamino collapsed into the arms of dames when the Queen of the Night approached. She appeared as an eccentric figure in a ragged dress. The dames were terrified by her presence and she was particularly hostile to them. Torosyan's timbre was not too bright in tone with a shade of mellowness and her tessitura technically met the range comfortably.
After the dames unlocked Papageno's mouth, they took the rats he caught for them but nothing in exchange. There were no magical music instrument for Tamino and Papageno except some scrap metals. Hermann seems to engage those passages as part of the orchestral accompaniment than a tool to display on stage. The magical sense seems a psychological stimulation than anything extraordinary. A metal door shut the stage when Tamino and Papageno disappeared into the holes of the sewage wall to embark the adventure. A chilling impression was given during scene change with the sound of wind blowing amplified from the speakers. The following scene saw a forest with rocks and pipes outside the stone cliff of the sewage. Papageno scared Monostatos off by his aggressive outlook and saw Pamina, who dressed in white. He was shy when she asked of his background and hided in the tree. Vocally the duet complimented each other and in good tempo coordination, but Heyse was forceful in reaching the top notes and not natural in placing the words along. Mice as stuffed animal form appeared to tell them how to meet up with Tamino while the three boys sang from the orchestral pit. It would have been effective but vocally they sang without much support and diction was muddy.
The forest illuminated when Tamino tried to force into the temple and a green man refused his entry. Smith had softened his approach and was less strain in reaching the higher vocal register. Diction and phrasing were more successful than the beginning. He crushed into the shrubs whereas Tamina and Papageno were seen climbing around the pipes and trees. Papageno knocked Monostatos off when the latter was stunned by the steam burst from the pipes. Glockenspiel was played and the chorus sang the hymn of praise from sides of the theatre. In effect the choral singing and percussions became soundtrack accompanying the scene than marking the symbolic meaning. Sarastro sat on a chair outside a wooden structured barn, alike the leader of a gang in a western film, with vegetation in front. Jerkunica delivered a rich voice with a ringing tone. The chief was seen as possessive of Pamina and forced her to retreat inside the barn. Two knights became local militia and blindfolded the two men. There was no assurance of hope nor help but the adventure of Tamino sent himself into a torturing institution.
Act two began with Sarastro sewing in the barn and mice wandered around the room. The knights then interrogated and threatened Tamino and Papageno. Though seduction from three dames in erotic outfits became an odd torture than the supposed test, which the intention seems to highlight the strangeness of a mad house than logical progression of actions. There was noticeably more blood stained on the metal door during the scene change into a clinical bathroom. Pamina trembled in fear when Monostatos foreced his way by smashing the door window. Queen of the Night made an unexpected entry from behind the shower curtain with a dagger. Torosyan's timbre sounded more distinctive in colour for the gutsy rendition of the well known pyrotechnical aria. She secured all the top notes mostly but intonation dropped flat towards the end. Monostatos threatened Pamina with the dagger but fled when Sarastro entered the room. The supposed noble and righteous guardian of Pamina turned on the water tap and dipped himself in the bath, while she massaged his feet and even masturbated the genital area reluctantly. Altogether it made a psychopathic scene that morality of the household failed in different extreme forms. Thus, it laid down a convincing motive why Tamino was here to rescue Pamina from the sick society that her parents in control of.
The torturing theme continued when the scene returned to the barn's interior. Papageno went mad when the knights poured him with a bucket of cold water and a brief appearance of Papagena before being taken away. Hagen lacked the flexibility and sang with an effort in her coloratura of Pamina's disappointment by Tamino's indifference. In contrast, the men chorus and brass gave a confident and rich bodied musical introduction to Sarastro's solemn entry. The coordination of the trio though was messy and Smith struggled to fit in the notes. Papageno and Pamina remained in the room as Tamino was first taken away. Pamina's sufferings continued with a soul tortured Papageno threw food at her, stopped only when the knights took her away. Papagena, on a wheelchair with hand folded alike patient from a mental asylum, was pushed in for a brief emotional exchange. It was no longer a joke between the actual age and disguised appearance, but a conversation among the sufferers that the stark torment continued to separate them apart.
A chilling start to the third act with Pamina holding a dagger while stuffed mice were eating grass in front of the barn. Tuning was problematic among the boys' singing and also underwhelming in dynamics. Hagen was straining her voice when climbing up the vocal range. For the first time of scene change there were characters appeared in front of the metal door. The knights made Tamino and Pamina to take part in a torturing game of Russian roulette inside the barn. To their surprise, one of the knights shot himself dead and the rest fled from the room quickly. Papageno was left alone to make his yearning for Papagena with an emotional plead while the mice advised him. He shot the incoming knight who tried to abuse Papagena again. Wagner as Papageno was credited by his characterisation of the eccentric figure and fluid singing. The penultimate scene change abandoned the metal door as the brutal test was over. Stage set of the bathroom scene returned, and saw the company of Queen of the Night electrocuted by Sarastro after plugging in the socket. The bizarre execution was funny at first but ironic by outcome. Sarastro finally met his end when Tamino shot him outside the barn and the couples finally got away from the abusers. After all in this staging magic was an illusion but brutality underpinned the essence, even we felt uncomfortable and shocked by the perceived realism.
(Photo credit: Annemie Augustijns; Opera Vlaanderen)
The orchestra was a mixture of modern and replicas of period instruments, including the natural brass. It made a brighter tone colour and leaner texture. Schweiger adopted a broad tempo in conducting the Adagio opening alike a solemn fanfare. Instead of hurrying along the allegro, his conducting kept a natural flow of tempo to dramatise the music and shaped it like a dance with momentum. First scene happened in an underground sewage with an exploding power generator that knocked Tamino unconscious. Instead of a lame snake, the explosion was the impact more immediate. Smith's, as Pamino, diction was not audibly convincing even with a good vocal projection. Vibrato was rather heavy and not a relaxing switch in tessitura. The three dames possessed the right timbres for the roles, delivered a good bodied of vocal volume in their trio and managed the swift tempo adopted by the orchestra. Papageno entered the sewage by climbing the hanging ropes and behaving strangely with hissing. Tamino collapsed into the arms of dames when the Queen of the Night approached. She appeared as an eccentric figure in a ragged dress. The dames were terrified by her presence and she was particularly hostile to them. Torosyan's timbre was not too bright in tone with a shade of mellowness and her tessitura technically met the range comfortably.
After the dames unlocked Papageno's mouth, they took the rats he caught for them but nothing in exchange. There were no magical music instrument for Tamino and Papageno except some scrap metals. Hermann seems to engage those passages as part of the orchestral accompaniment than a tool to display on stage. The magical sense seems a psychological stimulation than anything extraordinary. A metal door shut the stage when Tamino and Papageno disappeared into the holes of the sewage wall to embark the adventure. A chilling impression was given during scene change with the sound of wind blowing amplified from the speakers. The following scene saw a forest with rocks and pipes outside the stone cliff of the sewage. Papageno scared Monostatos off by his aggressive outlook and saw Pamina, who dressed in white. He was shy when she asked of his background and hided in the tree. Vocally the duet complimented each other and in good tempo coordination, but Heyse was forceful in reaching the top notes and not natural in placing the words along. Mice as stuffed animal form appeared to tell them how to meet up with Tamino while the three boys sang from the orchestral pit. It would have been effective but vocally they sang without much support and diction was muddy.
The forest illuminated when Tamino tried to force into the temple and a green man refused his entry. Smith had softened his approach and was less strain in reaching the higher vocal register. Diction and phrasing were more successful than the beginning. He crushed into the shrubs whereas Tamina and Papageno were seen climbing around the pipes and trees. Papageno knocked Monostatos off when the latter was stunned by the steam burst from the pipes. Glockenspiel was played and the chorus sang the hymn of praise from sides of the theatre. In effect the choral singing and percussions became soundtrack accompanying the scene than marking the symbolic meaning. Sarastro sat on a chair outside a wooden structured barn, alike the leader of a gang in a western film, with vegetation in front. Jerkunica delivered a rich voice with a ringing tone. The chief was seen as possessive of Pamina and forced her to retreat inside the barn. Two knights became local militia and blindfolded the two men. There was no assurance of hope nor help but the adventure of Tamino sent himself into a torturing institution.
Act two began with Sarastro sewing in the barn and mice wandered around the room. The knights then interrogated and threatened Tamino and Papageno. Though seduction from three dames in erotic outfits became an odd torture than the supposed test, which the intention seems to highlight the strangeness of a mad house than logical progression of actions. There was noticeably more blood stained on the metal door during the scene change into a clinical bathroom. Pamina trembled in fear when Monostatos foreced his way by smashing the door window. Queen of the Night made an unexpected entry from behind the shower curtain with a dagger. Torosyan's timbre sounded more distinctive in colour for the gutsy rendition of the well known pyrotechnical aria. She secured all the top notes mostly but intonation dropped flat towards the end. Monostatos threatened Pamina with the dagger but fled when Sarastro entered the room. The supposed noble and righteous guardian of Pamina turned on the water tap and dipped himself in the bath, while she massaged his feet and even masturbated the genital area reluctantly. Altogether it made a psychopathic scene that morality of the household failed in different extreme forms. Thus, it laid down a convincing motive why Tamino was here to rescue Pamina from the sick society that her parents in control of.
The torturing theme continued when the scene returned to the barn's interior. Papageno went mad when the knights poured him with a bucket of cold water and a brief appearance of Papagena before being taken away. Hagen lacked the flexibility and sang with an effort in her coloratura of Pamina's disappointment by Tamino's indifference. In contrast, the men chorus and brass gave a confident and rich bodied musical introduction to Sarastro's solemn entry. The coordination of the trio though was messy and Smith struggled to fit in the notes. Papageno and Pamina remained in the room as Tamino was first taken away. Pamina's sufferings continued with a soul tortured Papageno threw food at her, stopped only when the knights took her away. Papagena, on a wheelchair with hand folded alike patient from a mental asylum, was pushed in for a brief emotional exchange. It was no longer a joke between the actual age and disguised appearance, but a conversation among the sufferers that the stark torment continued to separate them apart.
(Photo credit: Annemie Augustijns; Opera Vlaanderen)
