The Magic Flute

The New York Metropolitan Opera has a fabled reputation for the most extravagant of productions. Australian audiences can now feast on the visual banquet cooked up by Julie Taymor, of Lion King fame and Spiderman infamy, in this replica performance that opened at the Sydney Opera House ahead of a transfer to Melbourne.

The Magic Flute gives plenty of scope for an imagination to run wild. In this one The Queen of the Night descends to the stage in shimmering butterfly like wings. Giant bears light up in lanterns and birds squawk around in a kaleidoscope of colours.

The frame for this is a giant clear box that revolves, splits and turns depending on the scene.

To add to the commercial appeal, the Opera is performed in English and has been cut down.

There could scarcely be a better way to introduce young people to the world of opera, even if they still have to read the surtitles at times.

But did the performances match the uncompromising artistry of the set?

In some cases, but not always.

Only once did the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

This came during the aria Hell's vengeance boils in my heart, performed by Emma Pearson as the Queen of the Night. If someone was holding a Champagne glass it may well have shattered.

At the other end of the note spectrum is the Bass Baritone of Sarastro.  A good bass can be just as thrilling as a soaring soprano. Performed by David Parkin (the winner of the first Operatunity Oz competition), it was slightly tarnished by a touch of grind as he descended to the very bottom  of the scale.

It was the smallest of blemishes on a delightful evening.

The Magic Flutewas a hit in 1791 when Mozart himself conducted the first performance, just weeks before his death, and this most widely of performed operas will remain one for centuries to come.

David Spicer

Images: Andrew Jones as Papageno; Nicole Car as Pamina and David Parkin as Sarastro; Emma Pearson as Queen of the Night - in Opera Australia's The Magic Flute. Photographer: Branco Gaica.