Seriously, this Flute is magical
Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue’: as a description of English National Opera’s season openers, this old wedding rhyme works.
Nick Hytner’s production of The Magic Flute has been around for 25 years, and the most striking costumes on display are midnight blue.
Richard Jones’s take on Bohuslav Martinu’s Julietta is new to London, but has been seen before in Paris and Geneva.
Like Jonathan Miller’s Rigoletto and Mikado, Hytner’s Magic Flute is wheeled out year after year, but unlike them, it’s not immediately obvious why. While Miller’s mafia Rigoletto and silly-ass grand hotel Mikado are eye-catching from the outset, this Flute is a much slower burn; sober to a fault, with all pantomimic elements excluded.
Blade stunner: Kathryn Lewek as Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute
The central figures in his concept aren’t the young lovers Tamino and Pamina, but Sarastro and his followers, who in this production are not members of some Freemasonry-inspired cult, but an Age of Enlightenment tribute band.
These serious men, with serious intent, dominate the show. And Mozart’s often gravely beautiful music is enhanced by Hytner’s intellectual austerity, which impresses more and more through the evening. Musically, this is well cast and young Nicholas Collon, making his debut, draws spirited playing from the orchestra.
As befits Hytner’s vision, the veteran Robert Lloyd, who became a principal bass at Covent Garden 40 years ago, is an imposing Sarastro, effortlessly dominating whenever he is on stage. And, despite the passing years, he gets all the low notes, which most Sarastros don’t.
Shawn Mathey’s Tamino is solid rather than inspired and way outclassed in the beefcake stakes by Duncan Rock’s hugely promising Papageno. But again his sober-sided approach fits well with Hytner’s. Similarly, Elena Xanthoudakis’s Pamina, although decently enough sung, is far outshone in charisma, not just by Kathryn Lewek’s spirited Queen of the Night, but also by an unusually strong Three Ladies, led by Elizabeth Llewellyn.
Once more, though, a pallid Pamina is just what Dr Hytner ordered, but of course he is long gone and stand-in directors rule OK. This is said to be the production’s last outing. If so, I’ll be sad, because I took a couple of friends to what was their first opera, and they loved it. So will opera sophisticates, who can relish the ageless subtlety of Hytner’s approach. The run continues until October 18.
At this point let me declare an interest, or rather, a lack of one. I have never heard a piece by Martinu I ever wanted to hear again. He was far too prolific for his own good, spreading his inspiration way too thinly across a couple of hundred pieces. He never revised anything, and one of Julietta’s great flaws is the absence of a blue pencil.
ENO describes Julietta as ‘Martinu’s rarely performed masterpiece’. Rarely performed, yes. Masterpiece, well that’s debatable. This is a tough, and for me unrewarding, evening despite all the skills that Jones and his regular team bring to bear, notably designer Antony McDonald, whose Act 2 set is breathtaking.
Martinu can empty an opera house faster than an outbreak of bubonic plague. And frankly I’m surprised, not withstanding ENO’s understandable commitment to Jones, who is arguably Britain’s finest directorial talent, that in these straitened times they are prepared to take such a box-office risk.
Julietta, not especially well performed by the vocally and physically uninspired Julia Sporsen, is an obsession of Michel, brilliantly portrayed by the dynamic Peter Hoare. Reality or fantasy, who can say, and by the end, frankly, who cares.
Character parts are well taken by ENO stalwarts such as Andrew Shore, Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts and Henry Waddington. In the pit Ed Gardner and his orchestra blaze away but for me, despite all this artistry, it’s a lot of fuss about nothing.
Martinu, as well as lacking discipline as a composer, knocked out his own equally undisciplined libretto for this one, which needlessly spreads over three acts. A bit like laying on a jumbo jet to carry half a dozen passengers. The worthwhile music and drama could readily be fitted into a 45-minute one-acter. Instead, with two intervals, it drags on for almost three hours.
Admirers of first-class stagecraft will want to see what Jones has done, but otherwise, this one is best avoided.
BLADE STUNNER: Kathryn Lewek as Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute
Mozart: The Magic Flute
Martinu: Julietta English National Opera, London Coliseum
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