Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Louis Langrée leads a wondrous, endlessly inventive THE MAGIC FLUTE that you can’t miss

• By drediman
• July 20, 2019
• No Comments

1927’s production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” at the David H. Koch Theater, courtesy of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival. Photo by Michal Daniel.

Last night at the David H. Koch Theater, I attended a performance of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute, courtesy of Lincoln Center’s thoughtfully-curated Mostly Mozart Festival (which features not just classical music, but also new music, dance, theater, and film). I’ve experienced some of the most satisfying productions of Mozart operas at the annual summer performing arts festival, mostly via Iván Fischer and his Budapest Festival Orchestra (I see them later on in the festival). Their deeply human, semi-staged productions of The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni stand among the most transcendent performances not only of these oft staged operas I’ve seen, but of all my opera-going.

Now Mostly Mozart is presenting another Mozart opera, the fantastical but fiendishly difficult-to-stage The Magic Flute via director Barrie Kosky and his theater company 1927. I’m happy to report that the production – one of the centerpieces of this year’s festival – has filled some mighty big shoes with panache. 1927’s The Magic Flute is wondrous and endlessly inventive, using its distinctive hybrid theatrical and live action animation aesthetic (the British theater company’s The Animals and Children Took to The Streets and Golem both use the same ingenious techniques on display here) to create a whimsical but menacing world for the opera. One of the distinguishing masterstrokes of the production is its utilization of silent film captions to replace the opera’s problematic “spiel” in singspiel, resulting in the most musically and dramatically seamless Magic Flute I’ve seen.

The performance was conducted by festival music director Louis Langrée, who brings out a radiant rendition of the popular score from the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. The production was given dimension and soul by the orchestra’s buoyant playing, without which Mr. Kosky’s visual spectacle might have worn out its welcome. Although none of the singers particularly struck me as definitive interpreters of their respective roles, they were nonetheless solid across the board, seemingly game for the physical precision needed to pull Mr. Kosky’s staging. All-in-all, this Magic Flute might just be the most satisfying I’ve seen, continuing Mostly Mozart’s impeccable track record with its namesake operas. The last performance is tonight. I encourage you not to miss it.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

THE MAGIC FLUTE
Opera
Mostly Mozart Festival / David H. Koch Theater
2 hours, 45 minutes (with one intermission)
Through July 20