The Magic Flute A review by Elizabeth Sheldon |
 The curtain rose to expose a set taken straight out of the archives of the surrealist Belgium painter René Magritte. The set was an exaggerated perspective of an interior although the sky and clouds were on the inside. The set was lined by identical doors which opened to reveal the actors and other exciting creatures that came and went during the performance.The entire production was spectacular and was organised around the Magritte surreal theme. For those who are not familiar with his work, you may may recognise the bowler-hated men, who were frequented featured in his paintings. These bowler-hatted men were a dominant part of this production of The Magic Flute and, strange as it may seem, they did not appear out of the ordinary at all. The Magic Flute is a comedic opera written by Mozart and premiered in 1791. It is an opera loaded with Masonic symbolism and meaning. Mozart was a stalwart Mason and incorporated many of the principles of Masonry into this opera, such as brotherhood, humanist values and enlightenment. Brotherhood was represented by the society that Sarastro presided over. Enlightenment was literally shown by the lights being turned down and then up again and humanist values were depicted in the relationships between the characters and also the animals with human characteristics, who were in fact, utterly charming. Briefly the tale involves a Prince Tamino who together with the bird catcher Papageno are sent to find the Queen's daughter Pamina, imprisoned by Sarastro. A magic flute and bells will protect them. On finding the brotherhood led by Sarastro, Tamino is put through certain trials which help him find Pamina. The performers were excellent, the tenor Russell Thomas who played the main character Tamino has a voice of true quality and it was a joy to hear him sing. The Queen of the night, played by Laure Meloy had a very sweet voice although she didn't quite make all the very high notes in Act ll, when she was telling her daughter to kill Sarastro. Pamina played by Rebecca Evans was excellent, both as an actress and singer. The most charismatic character was Papageno, a comedian but charming actor and singer played by Neal Davies. The music was superb and conductor Gareth Jones is to be congratulated. This was a true professional performance in every sense. I enjoyed the performance very much and will have the vision of the brotherhood dressed completely in orange toped off with matching bowler hats in my minds- eye for many weeks to come. |