The Magic Flute @ Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, 28 Aug
This is an extraordinary production that no one will forget. Edinburgh has come to expect weird and wonderful work from director Barrie Kosky, and with The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte) we are not disappointed
An opera of magic, fairy tales and dreams, animation is the perfect medium to bring this alive. It is to Kosky’s credit that when he saw the work of Suzanne Andrade and Paul Barritt’s 1927, a company not previously well known, he asked them to collaborate.
Animations are projected onto a screen, with real life singers standing on ledges or poking their heads through, surrounded by beautiful, strange or comic images: an orange-red dragon flares through a mysterious forest, a giant dome-headed spider is Queen of the Night who is brilliantly sung by Beate Ritter, the magic flute is Tinkerbell-like. Fairy tale images mix with silent film references: Papageno (hilariously performed by Dominik Koniger) has the sad eyes and hat of Buster Keaton; Monostatos (the wonderfully evil Johannes Dunz) looks like Nosferatu. It’s a clever idea to replace the recitative with ornate script – a nod to the subtitles of silent film.
Although the interminable trials are notoriously heavy going, here the imagery – whirling machinery, a fire-breathing Greek god, pulsing deepwater fish – enthrals even the children in the audience.
None of this comes at the expense of the music. The orchestra of the Komische Oper conducted by Kristiina Poska are superb as are all the singers, but in particular, Adela Zaharia’s rich and moving tones as Pamina.
The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte), Festival Theatre, run ended