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by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, directed by Ashlie Corcoran

Canadian Opera Company, Four Seasons Centre, Toronto

January 19, 28, 29, February 1, 3, 4, 7, 10, 16, 18, 19 and 20, 2017

Chorus: “Die düstre Nacht verscheucht der Glanz der Sonne”

(“The light of the sun banishes the dismal night”)

The Canadian Opera Company is currently presenting its first revival of Diane Paulus’s production of The Magic Flute since 2011.  The production is still colourful and attractive though the flaws in its conception are even more apparent on a second viewing.  Luckily, these flaws do not impinge on one’e enjoyment of the singing of an especially fine cast.    

Ashlie Corcoran is listed as the director of the opera, but her thankless task has been to re-create Paulus’s direction.  Nevertheless, Corcoran seems to have had her own positive influence over the cast since the action seems more joyful, spontaneous and detailed than it did in 2011.  Yet, Corcoran can do nothing to solve the problem inherent in Paulus’s production that links two incompatible ideas which don’t work well on their own or in conjunction.. 

Paulus has the action begin during the overture with members of an aristocratic household of the late 18th century, both masters and servants, preparing to stage Die Zauberflöte (“The Magic Flute”) on a temporary stage set in a garden.  Some like the Queen of the Night and entourage are already in costume; others are not.  The occasion is supposedly Pamina’s name-day, a point clear only from only from Paulus’s 2011 programme notes, not from the action on stage.

For Act 1 the opera is played on the stage-upon-a-stage with the aristocrats and servants as audience.  This leads to an obvious problem since eventually all the observers are required to be in the opera.  By Act 2 only a few servants are left to look on and finally even they are involved in the action and we have to wonder who is left to watch the performance.  How is this a treat is it for Pamina to perform in an opera that no one is watching? 

The fact that the stage-upon-a-stage is set in a garden is meant to lead to Paulus’s second concept, namely that the action takes place in a labyrinth.  When the curtain opens on Act 2 the stage-upon-a-stage has vanished and all we see is a garden made up of twelve-foot-high hedges.  The problem here is that designer Myung Hee Cho has not arranged the hedges as a labyrinth but as a formal garden.  The walls and openings present a symmetrical pattern and not a bewildering enclosure.  Because of that the garden poorly represents the Burg (“fortress”) where Sarastro lives.  The prison for Tamino and Papageno is in the open as are the trial chambers of fire and water that Tamino and Pamina must pass through. 

For unknown reasons Paulus suggests that Sarastro’s realm is a male-only preserve even though Sarastro is prepared to induct Pamina into it along with Tamino.  Mozart’s chorus of priests is written for male and female voices, but Paulus has only the male chorus members clad as priests while the female chorus members are dressed as servants as they when the opera began.  This is a blatantly unfair representation of the enlightened world Sarastro represents.  Beside this, Pamina sings that she will lead Tamino through the trials of fire and water guided by love (“Ich selbsten führe dich / Die Liebe leitet mich”), yet, unfairly, Paulus refuses to show this and places Tamino in the lead.  How is it feminist to repress an example of female heroism when it is so clearly stated in the text?

As Tamino, Andrew Haji possesses a bright, expressive Italianate tenor whose size is just the right fit for Mozart and 18th-century opera.  Elena Tsallagova boasts a soprano of surprising richness and depth and phrasing of great sensitivity that help bring out the pathos of such “Ach, ich fühl’s” and “Du also bist mein Bräutigam?”   As Papageno, Joshua Hopkins has a velvety baritone whose lightness and agility belies its underlying strength.  His comic timing is masterful and he is an expert at mime making him musically and dramatically one of the most delightful Papagenos I’ve seen.

Soprano Ambur Braid is an impressive Queen of the Night.  She does not sing the Queen’s two principal arias merely as showpieces, as singers so often do, but rather acts while singing so that she brings out the meaning of the words while effortlessly engaging in the score’s vocal gymnastics. 

Goran Jurić initially makes a strong Sarastro in his first aria, but strangely his voice seems to decrease in resonance with each successive aria.  Michael Colvin makes Monostatos a fine comic menace.  Fortunately, Paulus has cut all negative references in the libretto to Monostatos’s dark skin colour.  Here it is his rat-like appearance, contrasted with Papageno’s bird-like appearance, that is meant to be off-putting.               

Special mention must be made of the Three Ladies – Aviva Fortunata, Emily D’Angelo and Lauren Segal – whose voices blend perfectly.  Designer Myung Hee Cho made them look very much like an early version of valkyries, all three given heavy, black-rimmed glasses to comic effect.

Bernard Labadie, well-known for conducting the period instrument ensemble Les Violons du Roy, leads the COC Orchestra in an exciting account of the score with tempi slightly faster than usual.  He allows the orchestra to sound like an ensemble of modern instruments and does not try to make the orchestra approximate the sound of period instruments, an effect some past conductors like Harry Bicket or Jane Glover have achieved.

Even if Paulus’s concepts do not entirely work, Myung Hee Cho’s period-inspired designs are consistently attractive and the various animals she has created are delightfully imaginative.  With singing and acting of such a high level, this production should be a fine introduction for those new to opera and an excellent reminder of the playfulness of Mozart’s genius for those who already know the opera well.

*On January 29, February 3, 16, 18 and 24, Owen McCausland sings Tamino, Kirsten MacKinnon sings Pamina, Phillip Addis sings Papageno and Matt Boehler  sings Sarastro.      

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This is a version of the review that will appear later this year in Opera News.

Photos: (from top) Lauren Segal, Emily D’Angelo and Aviva Fortunata as the Three Ladies, dragon and Andrew Haji as Tamino; Elena Tsallagova as Pamina and Joshua Hopkins as Papageno; Ambur Braid as the Queen of the Night. ©2017 COC.

For tickets, visit www.coc.ca.