Mozart's Die Zauberflote at THE MET, April 1, 2010

Reviewed by Bill Breakstone, Somers, New York

On Thursday, April 1st, The Metropolitan Opera presented its spring 2010 production of Mozart's Die Zauberflote. The production premiered during the 2004-2005 Season at The Met, directed by Julie Taymor. Critical reviews were mixed, the consensus being that Taymor’s production, though highly original and visually effective, distracted from the music and story line to the detriment of the composition. The production, however, has proved an audience favorite.

This season, the Met has put on two separate performances of this work, using different casts. The fall presentations were led by Bernarde Lebadie, and this early spring staging by the Hungarian conductor Adam Fischer.

On the musical performance side, all went extremely well. Fischer’s pacing was, in this writer’s opinion, close to perfect, and the Met Orchestra and Chorus have never sounded better. The principal singers, two of whom were making debuts at the house, were most impressive and hopefully will become regulars in the Met roster of artists. German Julia Kleiter was the new Pamina. A strikingly beautiful and statuesque young woman, she possesses a sweet, powerful and lyrical soprano voice. The Queen of The Night was sung by the Russian, Albina Shagimuratova, and her two demanding arias were handled expertly, much to the appreciarion of the sell-out house. Met regulars Nathan Gunn (Papageno) and Matthew Polenzani (Tamino) were outstanding, both vocally and dramatically, especially Gunn. Another German was making his Met Debut in the role of Sarastro: Hans-Peter Koenig. His imposing stature, wide-ranging bass and deliberate tempi were a highlight of his performance, which included an outstanding interpretation of “In diesen heil’gen Hallen.” However, it was the production itself that impressed me the most.

Mozart was less than a year from his untimely death when Zauberflote was premiered in Vienna. He was financially destitute, and soon to be consumed by his fatal illness. His collaboration with the librettist Lorenzo De Ponte was over. His new literary partner, Emanuel Schikaneder, was one of Mozart’s best friends. Although a well known Viennese impresario and famous Shakespearian actor, he had no previous stage experience with the composer. That he could rise in a first- time collaboration and produce such a masterpiece is remarkable. What resulted was a magical combination of fairy tale, religious and ethical expression, humor, and musical inventiveness that has not been matched since.

Julie Taymor is an award-wining director on Broadway and in film. Her major accomplishment prior to this Zauberflote at The Met, was “The Lion King” on Broadway. This was her first venture into opera design and production.

One could say that imagination is one of the essential ingredients of artistic genius. The imagination of Taymor, as evidenced in this production, is astounding. The sets, the costumes, the integration of the stage characters with the music, was at a level of genius that was overwhelming. She creates visually spectacular images, such as the three ladies of the night, so essential in the first act, who are not only striking on stage, but are totally in sync with Mozart’s music—three vocally outstanding singers (Wendy Bryn Harmer, Jamie Barton and Tamara Mumford), in blackface, with their strikingly white masks sitting on top of their heads, so that one’s attention is not drawn to their actual faces, but to those masks, which are manipulated by the singers to stay in rhythm with the music. Then there were the giant lion-like figures that terrorize Pamino and Papageno in Act 1, manipulated deftly by almost invisible stage hands to dance around the two heroes as if they were ballet dancers, again totally in sync with the music. Similarly, the puppet-like ladies in Act 2 reflect Mozart’s music in-step, even though elevated on stilts. Just three examples among many others of Taymor’s understanding of the connectivity between stage movement to the musical score.

Then there are the sets themselves, designed by George Tsypin, visually stunning in every respect and totally congruent with the musical and stage action taking place, not to mention the costumes and lighting effects. Critical reviews from the premiere and subsequent performances were somewhat subdued. Some have said that the production interfered with with the music, but this writer respectfully begs to disagree. Perhaps only Mozart could make such a judgment, and as I sat there in my box, I could only imagine that if he were watching this performance, he would have a smile on his.