Prom 51: The Magic Flute - 27.08.19

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:00 Tuesday 27 August 2019
Royal Albert Hall

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Magic Flute (semi-staged; sung in German, with surtitles)




David Portillo Tamino
Sofia Fomina Pamina
Bjorn Burger Papageno
Alison Rose Papagena
Brindley Sherratt Sarastro
Caroline Wettergreen Queen of the Night
Jorg Schneider Monostatos
Esther Dierkes First Lady
Marta Fontanals-Simmons Second Lady
Katharina Magiera Third Lady
Michael Kraus Speaker
Martin Snell First Priest/Second Man in Armour
Thomas Atkins Second Priest/First Man in Armour

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Ryan Wigglesworth conductor

Glyndebourne’s new production of The Magic Flute comes to the Proms in a special semi-staging.

Mozart’s final opera is a beguiling mix of enchantment and Enlightenment politics. A score overflowing with melody and invention and a fairy-tale cast of characters together create one of the composer’s best-loved comedies.

Ryan Wigglesworth conducts an exciting young cast including Sofia Fomina, Björn Bürger and David Portillo.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

"Mozart's final opera", eh? - apart from the one he completed afterwards.

[Dave2002]

If it's semi staged will it still have the elements of Masterchef? Music - lovely - and the performers. The gastronomie ... not to everyone's taste I think.

[vinteuil]

"Mozart's final opera", eh? - apart from the one he completed afterwards.

... I thought die Zauberflöte was a Singspiel anyway...

But he wrote la Clemenza di Tito while he was still writing the Flute : the premiere of la Clemenza was 6 September 1791, that of the Flute 30 September.

Six of one and a dozen of the other, I think....





.

[Darkbloom]

Didn't Sussmayr do the recitatives? If you were being really pedantic I suppose you could call Clemenza a collaboration.

[jayne lee wilson]

Tangential - the new Sols (Villazon, Muhleman, Vogt etc)/COE/YNS Flute is gorgeous..... had it playing through the house here off Qobuz a lot recently...

[Darkbloom]

I had to leave at the interval - the heat in the Arena was stifling and, for the first time, I had to wave the white flag - but I found this a curiously inert performance. Brindley Sherratt is an outstanding bass and everyone else sounded a bit second-rate by comparison. There was nothing about it that was bad, just fairly routine.

[Bryn]

I had to leave at the interval - the heat in the Arena was stifling and, for the first time, I had to wave the white flag - but I found this a curiously inert performance. Brindley Sherratt is an outstanding bass and everyone else sounded a bit second-rate by comparison. There was nothing about it that was bad, just fairly routine.

I had intended to Prom in the Arena but the weather forecast tipped me into staying indoors with curtains drawn and windows closed to limit the temperature rise. I will await further comments on the performance before deciding whether to access it via 'Sounds'.

[Bryn]

Didn't Sussmayr do the recitatives? If you were being really pedantic I suppose you could call Clemenza a collaboration.

Widely assumed, but without substantiating evidence. They are, it is fair ro say. not, in general, up to the standard to be expected from Mozart.

[David-G]

The Flute was very well sung. I particularly enjoyed Brindley Sherratt and Caroline Wettergreen. But the whole cast was excellent. And it is always a delight to hear the OAE in a Mozart opera. From the front of the Arena the whole thing sounded terrific.

About the production, on the other hand, the less said the better. The womens' costumes were exceedingly unbecoming - and some of the mens' were bizarre. At least we had the advantage that some of the production was left behind at Glyndebourne. "Mozart’s final opera is a beguiling mix of enchantment and Enlightenment politics." Really? In this production there was no beguiling, zero enchantment, not a hint of the Enlightenment, and the only politics was the crass waving of completely irrelevant "Votes for Women" signs, which my female friend found offensive in this context. Much of the "comedy" was not very funny, and sometimes completely crass. Of the serious aspects of the Flute, there was not a sign. Books have been written on the meaning of the "Flute" - but in this production, there was no meaning whatsoever. To play serious aspects of an opera for cheap laughs which have nothing to do with the opera, and nothing to do with the music, is a characteristic which this production shares with the Glyndebourne "Rinaldo". If you don't engage seriously with an opera, why bother to perform it at all? I expect better of Glyndebourne, and when considered in conjunction with their catastrophic "Damnation de Faust" this summer, I begin to have serious concerns about their artistic management.

However, if you are considering listening to it on iplayer (as I still tend to call "Sounds"), then forget all that. Musically it is a delight.

[David-G]

Widely assumed, but without substantiating evidence. They are, it is fair ro say. not, in general, up to the standard to be expected from Mozart.

However, as I regard "La Clemenza" as one of Mozart's finest operas, I do not propose to worry about the recitatives.

[DracoM]

On air, it sounded just a bit thin and grey, sort of lost in space i.e. lots of clumping about, echoey, and surprisingly little amusement signalled from audience - maybe many had fainted in the heat?

Was RAH a bit too huge for such a piece? Or at least for these singers?

I was really puzzled. This is one of my all-time favourite Mozart operas, but...but.... Oh dear.

[Darkbloom]

On air, it sounded just a bit thin and grey, sort of lost in space i.e. lots of clumping about, echoey, and surprisingly little amusement signalled from audience - maybe many had fainted in the heat?

Was RAH a bit too huge for such a piece? Or at least for these singers?

I was really puzzled. This is one of my all-time favourite Mozart operas, but...but.... Oh dear.

It was a good example of how hard Mozart can be. The lyrical roles are really exposed and if you are not good enough it only accentuates it. The standard of singing (with the notable exception of Sherratt) was about what you'd get in a middling opera house in Germany. In the RAH it all sounded a bit too lightweight, and I didn't find the conducting particularly memorable either. The production was very busy but amounted to lots of rushing about to no real purpose.

[Alison]

Can’t say I’ve ever been bowled over by Ryan Wigglesworth’s conducting. A formidable intellect at work, no doubt, but maybe not a musical communicator.

[Master Jacques]

They are, it is fair ro say. not, in general, up to the standard to be expected from Mozart.

If you want to hear them done memorably well, I'd recommend the English-language radio version The Mercy of Titus with a tip-top cast (Lewis, Sutherland, Sinclair, Cantelo, Hemsley and Pollak under Pritchard) which has recently emerged on Nimbus Prima Voce. Totally gripping - and not just the accompagnato recits, but the seccos also, and especially Sutherland! It is a very good advert for opera in English.