The Metropolitan Opera ended its 2022-2023 broadcast season Live in HDSaturday, with The Magic Flute, of Mozart. The subject was of interest in Quebec, since the production of Simon McBurney is the one that replaces that, initially planned, of Robert Lepage which was to succeed the exceptional production of Julie Taymor.
There Flute by Simon McBurney, in sets by Michael Levine and lit by Jean Kalman, is in fact an “old show” imported from Europe, which toured ten years ago, between 2012 and 2014, in Amsterdam, Aix-en -Provence and the English National Opera, the latter institution being co-producer of the show. It is singular, but very symbolic to see this emblematic work represent the future of the Metropolitan Opera, when the institution had thought of replacing the Flute fairytale by Julie Taymor with a production by Robert Lepage, which was rolled out in Quebec in 2018.
Lepage had taken the concept of “magic” literally by basing his show on the black art, an ancient art in which the difference between luminous planes and dark planes makes it possible to give the illusion of the instantaneous appearance and disappearance of things and characters.
Technological competition
Obviously, this personal, original and philosophical reading, which simply remained to be perfected in certain places, did not convince the management of the Met at a time when almost all the opera houses on the North American continent (we even ended up seeing this in Montreal ) were won over by a show that certainly crushed Mozart, but which dazzled their eyes.
There Flute the most exported in the world is indeed the one entrusted in 2012 by Barrie Kosky, then intendant of the Berlin Comic Opera, to the English Collective 1927 (Suzanne Andrade and Paul Barritt), two animation specialists, who knew nothing of Mozart and plunged the Flute in a world of silent cinema type projections. This technological feat has since been exported as ” Flute by Barrie Kosky”, the steward having originally been associated with the staging.
The same year (2011-2012), McBurney was working on a more dramatically intelligent show, but in the same vein: a synthesis of the technological processes in vogue at the opera. An artist writes or draws live, and his drawings are projected on canvases superimposed on the decor while a noisemaker (in New York) highlights becomes a character in the action.
The lousy
On a more or less naked and articulated set, the show caricatures in very broad strokes all the oppositions between “those who don’t know”, decked out in the ugliest costumes possible (Tamino, the prince, walks around at the start in a tracksuit found in a garage sale), and “those who know” behind a beautiful curtain with books projected on it, then seated around a board-style table.
The Queen of the Night is a grandmother in a wheelchair, strangely the mother of a 20-year-old daughter. Fortunately, there are very funny adaptations of the dialogues and some gags. The public laughs when Papageno plays country on the harmonica, urinates in a bottle or gives his phone number to a spectator of the 2e rank. The flautist from the orchestra walks around on stage as well as the guy who plays the glockenspiel.
What works in theaters is quite difficult to film, as many of the visual effects flatten out on screen. Should Lepage be “fired” for this technological breviary (how ironic!)? Not sure, and that makes you think. This product, which bends to a certain fashion, possibly attracts a “jokes and nonsense” public who have had fun. But, on this account, a certain fringe of occasional visitors is even better served in Houston or Dallas by Kosky and his band. Was Lepage’s show too philosophical for a large room to fill? So do the big cinemas have to sell a show for, henceforth, another audience?
McBurney’s advantage over Kosky remains clear: he nevertheless understood Mozart and his messages, which he passes on heavily, even if it means adding to it, to the point that Sarastro at the end gives kisses to the Queen of the Night after a “Lazarus, get up and walk” type miracle.
Saturday’s performance was sung honorably, without however marking, except for Erin Morley, as well as Kathryn Lewek, who embodied the Queen of the Night so much that she now does what she wants in any posture, and Brenton Ryan, whom we would love to hear in something other than Monostatos. Surprising wavering intonation at the beginning with the three ladies and good musical direction with an orchestra in a raised pit.
Quebec women empty-handed in Brussels