Words by Cyntia Sudomir <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mozart’s fairy tale with subversive symbolism comes to life once again at the Wales Millennium Centre, this time with Daisy Evans’ contemporary twist.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In a nutshell, we follow Prince Tamino and the bird-catcher Papageno on a mission to retrieve Princess Pamina from Sarastro, the King of Day and Pamina’s cerebral-celebratory father, who whisked her away from The Queen of the Night, Pamina’s freedom-loving mother. After a series of trials, Tamino and Pamina are united in marriage and a balance is struck between the two antithetical modes of existence represented by the two monarchs. Papageno also manages to charm up a Papagena and receive his happy ending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, where my opinion is concerned\u00d4\u00c7\u00aaon this note (loose pun intended) I must address the elephant in the room. I am no opera connoisseur. In fact, I’m a total plebe. Before this opportunity to review The Magic Flute<\/em> came up, I’d never even considered attending an opera. So be warned, I have no substantial frame of reference and my opinions (positive and negative) are just that; not gospel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I appreciated Evans’ re-plotting in an attempt to eliminate the racist and misogynistic tones present in the original Magic Flute<\/em>. Nothing is lost by updating Monostatos’ character from a Moorish, would-be rapist into an uppity tutor. Evans’ reconstruction of the plot also does wonders for Pamina’s character. In this version, Pamina is a visionary. She wishes for a better world. When Tamino seemingly rejects her, her aria is not merely the lament of a lover, but a young activist broken by her lover’s betrayal of their shared worldly ideals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What I found a bit baffling was the set design. During the interval, my boyfriend and I spoke about the overture. We were both baffled, albeit for different reasons. He hadn’t read the programme nor ever heard of colour-blind casting, so had no clue that the white pig-tailed girl was actually young Pamina. I struggled following the overture because of the business created by the LED globes and batons. Whilst they were intended to signal our attention, I felt myself taken out of the experience and instead found myself focusing on the puppeteers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One occasion where the set actually complemented the music, however, was during The Queen of the Night’s famous revenge aria. Specs of white light framed Julia Sitkovetsky in a halo against a completely black backdrop as she delivered the only solo performance which gave me goosebumps that evening. Only equally awe inspiring was the work of the entire chorus harmonising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And speaking of the chorus, after the performance had finished, I managed to speak with a (lovely!) member of the WNO’s bass section, Alastair Moore. When I asked him why he thinks people should come to watch this production of The Magic Flute,<\/em> he answered:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00d4\u00c7\u00ffBecause it’s interesting. It’s about what it means to be human. It really tries to get to the bottom of contemporary anxieties\u00d4\u00c7\u00aait’s glorious.’<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n And if that sounds like your cup of tea, then maybe get yourself a ticket this season. If not, why not go for the cultural experience? What I’ll say is that my hands hurt from clapping until the curtain fell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Words by Cyntia Sudomir Mozart’s fairy tale with subversive symbolism comes to life once again at the Wales Millennium Centre, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":650,"featured_media":33461,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[176,135],"tags":[1323,19,7228,1559],"class_list":["post-33460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-reviews","category-live-reviews","tag-opera","tag-review","tag-the-magic-flute","tag-welsh-national-opera"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n