Silly Little Country

Magic

We did manage to make it to The Magic Flute, having overcome misinformation about the Santa Claus Parade and about the start time of the show. The parade did make parking a challenge.
On the way to the show, we saw bits of the Toronto Santa Claus Parade, and it was clear that the spirit of that event would be consonant with the spirit of the production we were heading for. I was very confident, after a few years of determinedly attending Opera Atelier productions, that this would be special.
I have seen four or five productions in my life of The Magic Flute; I doubt I will in my life see another to match this one, which surpassed all its predecessors in my experience.
Let me start by simply saying - "What He Said". Let me quote in a few places, and then prattle on myself.

It's a truly magic moment when a fine stage work meets equally fine performances powered by a strong director's vision. This is exactly what happens in the current Opera Atelier production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Elgin Theatre.

...

Opera Atelier's is a gorgeously balanced, uniformly strong and youthful ensemble cast. Some exceptionally fine singing and comic acting help make this Magic Flute a fabulous night out.

...

Rounding out the fulfilment is Tafelmusik. Fallis's assured leadership highlighted every musical colour in the score in perfect step with the action.

The Magic Flute has been produced almost continuously since its premiere shortly before Mozart's death in 1791. There is almost nothing a director could do that hasn't been tried before. Many great singers have sung the gorgeous arias. So it takes an especially strong production to stand out.

This is one of them. Catch it while you can.

This company is one of the reasons it is an utter delight to live in Toronto at times. I think I first finally went to an Opera Atelier productions a few years ago, of The Marriage of Figaro. It was stunning to me - it featured several things I had not experienced or enjoyed so directly in my previous opera going. And they are:

a) An emphasis on combining the music, song, and dance. The music is provided by Tafelmusik, a superb Baroque group from Toronto. The dance includes ballet (I do not mean strict classical ballet) integrated into the scenes, and also a very strict and wonderfully stylized choreography integrated into every step and gesture from every performer.

b) No compromise in the casting - the roles have athletic and artistic requirements, and the company meets them. No implausibly large characters purportedly engaged in major physical feats. In fact a single performance must be quite an athletic event for all the performers.

c) Wonderful staging. As much use they make of modern technologies, part of the delight is that you realize what is being done COULD generally have been done in the original performances, maybe differently, but likely with a lot more drama.

d) Such costumes!!!!!!!!!!!!! Every cast member is dressed magnificently.

e) A sense of play. This is a very delicate point - for this play, the staging is clearly not what would have been the original one. But in every one of the shows I have seen sense, it felt right to me. Part of what I mean here is something that goes so wrong with many Gilbert and Sullivan shows I see - someone takes a liberty with the original and it falls with a thud. I have never seen this happen with Opera Atelier.

So how did The Magic Flute perform in these categories?

a) Wonderful. Colin Ainsworth as Tamino seems simply to be in better and better voice each new show - he was stunning yesterday. Peggy Kriha Dye's Pamina was lovely, accurate and clear. The SillyWife and I were a little disappointed at the Queen of the Night in the first act, singing through a gauze screen, but in her second virtuoso aria she was utterly virtuosic! - as a result she removed our puzzlement at why Penelope Randall-Davis would be a Queen of the Night specialist in the globalised opera world. More below on Papageno and some others. It is impossible to describe how wonderfully they all move and create the story they are in.

b) There was not a single case of feeling a performer was out of place. No corpulent Mimi, no corpulent Don Jose. Even the somewhat young Curtis Sullivan was a fine Sarastro.

c) What can I say?! Stunning - my eyes were always busy. The dragon of the opening scenes was an utter delight (he/she walked and died with such attitude), the floating boat just lovely (a child seated behind us asked his father, "How does it fly?" (the wires were visible so I suspect he may be caught up in video games)), the stage sets were moved in ways that kept me giggling, mostly inside. Some highlights below.

d) Yes!! What costumes!! Great cleavage where it made sense. Great colours. Nice feathers.

e) Oh what delightful play, but one expects it of them. Let me list some.

i) The dragon. It teeters and totters somewhat incompetently, but when the Queen's Ladies confront it, it reacts with great surprise with a wonderful speed and races off to die. Lovely.

ii) Papageno. Not what I had expected from past experience - a young and very fetching Olivier Laquerre took this role in with utter joy. He steals the show in many ways - some more details below.

iii) Monostatos - I am speechless. Just wonderful in his mix of rage and ineffectuality.

iv) The animals in the scene where Tamino's flute tames them - this was wonderfully low-tech and delightfully effective, eliciting laughs and plain delight.

v) The slaves and Monostatos when Papageno's bells tame them - I bust out laughing at the skipping ropes, and it was staged with such energy and precision that it just seemed natural.

vi) Papageno's scenes trying to be silent - Laquerre was unbelievable. More below on this.

vii) Papageno and Papagena - this scene, with the Pa- Pa- Pa- sequence in the songs, has always been my favourite, but this incarnation was so special - Laquerre played it to the hilt, Carla Huhtanen was a very fetching Papagena with all her feathers, and the two of them fluttered through their dances in a way to keep everyone giggling.

OK those are simply highlights.

Now on to some special moments:

a) Marshall Pynkoski (or a near double) was sitting in one of the boxes by the stage - and it was great to see him applauding after the skipping-rope scene. This small touch of leadership did a lot to explain to me how this company sustains its stunning quality.

b) The scene where Papageno battles so hard to maintain his silence created an interesting dynamic. This was a matinee and many parents had brought children with them to see the show. Laquerre mugged it so magnificently, playing Papageno rightly as a near-child, that every child in the audience was surely identifying as he squirmed, failed and spoke, and was then 'Shshshed'. A beautiful rhythm developed, as Papageno cycled through the above, followed by the children in the audience laughing, followed by their parents. This was life, and so nice.

c) I regretted in a way they did not perform it in German, but the choice to do it in English was dead right. It allowed everyone to be engaged.

d) I stood to applaud, partly to see the cast, but largely because of what I said above - I doubt I will live to see a better production of this opera.

e) I was delighted that they started the overture spot on at 3 pm, even as people were still being seated. I am curmudgeonly enough to have become annoyed at the local practice of saying a show will start at 8 and then tolerating latecomers until 8:15. Was it historically the purpose of the overture to mitigate the annoyance of latecomers?

posted by Alan Adamson @ 7:37 PM