The Magic Flute review – humour, colour and plenty of drama in Opera North's kooky take
A child's fantasy or a skewering of grown-up power games? James Brining's production of The Magic Flute for Opera North, first seen in 2019 and revived for the second time this season, has a foot in both camps. Initially framed as the dream of the young girl seen heading for bed during the overture – its heroes, villains, and monsters conjured up from her toy box and a fractious family life – things turn starker and darker in Sarastro's palace, where misogyny and casual corruption undermine any cultish declamations about truth and love.
It's still not a wholly satisfactory staging – the final tableau in particular is so enigmatic that the audience on opening night were audibly uncertain the show had ended, and forays into feminism also feel underdeveloped – but its humour and dramatic momentum are admirable, and there's a healthy helping of kooky visual appeal courtesy of Colin Richmond's sets and Douglas O'Connell's video designs.
While a number of the cast return from the autumn run, there's also a clutch of notable firsts among the principals. Tenor Trystan Llŷr Griffiths makes his Opera North debut as Tamino – a Perrault-style Prince Charming with just a touch of Lohengrin in both voice and manner – as does soprano Nazan Fikret as a gleaming, formidable Queen of the Night, her accustomed ease apparent in what has become a signature role. Soraya Mafi, meanwhile, makes an exceptional role debut as a tenacious and principled Pamina: sung with thrilling assurance and swooning lyricism, she's a princess well worth trials by fire and ice.
Fresh from last month's Love Life, bass-baritone Justin Hopkins is an icily charismatic Sarastro, labouring a little over his lowest notes but singing with appealing richness of tone elsewhere, and Andri Björn Róbertsson remains a towering Speaker in every sense. There are welcome returns, too, from chorus members Charlie Drummond, Katie Sharpe and Hazel Croft as a sassy trio of bewimpled, lightsaber-toting Ladies, and tenor Colin Judson as a grubbily lecherous Monostatos. And, best of all among the returnees are Emyr Wyn Jones's wildman Papageno and Pasquale Orchard's sparky Papagena: comic timing sharpened, and accents (Welsh and New Zealand respectively) gloriously intact, they're the double-act of dreams – and Jones's mellifluous baritone in particular seems to have gained depth even since September.
One further debutant is arguably the making of this revival. In his first (and surely not last) appearance with the company, conductor Patrick Lange's fleet-footed tempi and knack for colour have the Orchestra of Opera North playing at the top of their game: a Magic Flute brimming with all the light and humanity which its final chorus proclaims.
At the Grand theatre, Leeds, until 22 February. Then touring until 29 March.
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