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Friday 9 January 2009

Mozart undersold

Die Zauberflöte
Royal Opera House

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Linbury

This time round Zauberflöte is being given 11 performances, with two casts. The first cast is notable for two great singers, one of them a great actor too, but for nothing else. The conducting is so undistinguished that one must ask once more why the Royal Opera roams the world seeking foreign mediocrities when there are plenty around at home. Roland Böer gives a reading of the score that casts no new light on it, and does it the damage of making Mozart’s sublime simplicities sound banal. Those cadential phrases that bring many of the numbers to rest merely resemble a bumpy landing under Böer, and Sarastro’s rather platitudinous aria ‘In diesen heil’gen Hallen’ is given such a plonking opening that one is bored before he even begins his pious (and hypocritical) sermonette. How can anyone given the privilege of conducting this phenomenal score, with its combination of effortlessness and profundity, remain so prosaic?

In the face of the waves of depression coming from the pit, Simon Keenlyside’s Papageno seemed more of a miracle than ever before. Keenlyside could have three quite separate careers: as a surpassing song recitalist (which he is anyway), as a great actor on the ‘legitimate’ stage, never singing a note; and as an accomplished acrobat-cum-clown. He combines all three in this role, and each time round one feels ‘He’s taken this as far as he can; anything more would be mannerism’ only to find that he has become still more subtle. Each element in his portrayal is more unobtrusively polished, and in the painful scene where Pamina is broken-hearted at Tamino’s silence, while even Papageno for once doesn’t speak, his strained posture of mute sympathy is almost unbearable. Genia Kühmeier, the Pamina, is not a complete artist of that kind, but she sang the difficult role with perfect accomplishment and with understanding, climaxing in the most moving rendering of ‘Ach, ich fuhl’s’ I can remember. Christoph Strehl has hijacked the role of Tamino, and must sometimes wonder which production he is in. He gave a nondescript account, decently sung but lacking individuality. That was to be found abundantly in John Graham-Hall’s Monostatos, and this interpretation of the part, as a peevish eunuch with a weird collection of colleagues, is one of the agreeable novelties of the production. All told, this was a tolerable but not a memorable evening.

More articles from: Michael Tanner | this section

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