The Magic Flutestill magical through children's wails
Julie Taymor knows how to WOW an audience. This abridged version of Motzart's crazy story of The Magic Flute was superbly acted and costumed, sung in English so the whole production seemed more like a theatrical musical than opera. We are thrown into a ice-carved cube of moving walls, Papageno (Nathan Gunn) and Tamino (Matthew Polenzani) leading the hero's journey through many tests of alliance. The Queen of the Night (Erika Miklosa) tries to have the duo 'save' her daughter, Pamina (Ying Huang), from Sarastro (David Pittsinger). The journey reveals, however, that Monostatos (Greg Fedderly) is the real villain, trying to have Pamino for his own and conspiring with the Queen.
I'm sure Mozart was on drugs when he wrote this. While it has all the classic elements of the hero's journey, it has goofy things like magical bells, addictive temptations, floating, singing children, and tons of Masonic symbols. Julie Taymor has such fun with the costumes. Papageno is dressed in a green, parrot-like outfit but with a childlike baseball cap for a bill, which he turns around for effect. Pamino looks like she fell from Alice and Wonderland. These huge bears come out like giant, glowing kites ready to engulf. These ballerina birds spiral about the stage for fun. The freaky child spirits are all white with long beards and spiky, icicle hair and black Masonic symbols painted on their diapered bodies - strange but effectively eerie. Monostatso is some weird hybrid of a giant bee and Danny Devito's Penguin. The set moves about to lock the crystal block faces into different formations for different scenes. The lighting worked well but during curtain closures, while characters were singing or speaking, you could hear the stage hands moving the sets about - poor direction! Overall, the whole production was so much fun, I almost forgot the obnoxious parents talking constantly with their children behind me. I simply leaned forward, cupped my hands to focus on the stage sounds, and enjoyed the production by trying to find my Zen focus. If someone finds it, please send it my way. I'll need it with these annoying New York audiences.
The First Emperorlets all swing on the Great Wall
Argh. I want to encourage the Met to fund new operas but with this mess, I'm hesitant.
Tan Dun (composer for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) worked with the best: Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern, Curse of the Golden Flower), Emi Wada (costumes for Ran), libretto co-writer Ha Jin, and Placido Domingo singing lead. The plot is pure melodrama typical of opera. The First Emperor using his power and physical force to unify China and force his childhood friend to write his crowning anthem of victory. But forcing his former friend to create for him backfires when the fellow falls for and sleeps with his daughter. She is miraculously cured, now able to walk but her fathers wrath drives her to death along with her lover. The ghosts follow the Emperor up the stage steps until he realizes the anthem playing is a cruel joke left to taunt him in life.
Where did things go wrong? Well, there are the horrid sets with floating Styrofoam stone blocks suspended from the rafters by dangling hemp ropes. The blocks reminded me a bit of the little Stonehenge from Spinal Tap but once the cast started pushing through them with ease, I couldn't stop thinking of the 'rocks' tossed about on the original Star Trek set. I believe the intent was to have these symbolize the building of the Great Wall as the slaves (chorus) moves and stages them about during the various scenes. I swear they used the same metal bleacher seats from my high school football days. This was unintentionally funny when, during the lovemaking scene, we see girls lite from under the bleachers gyrating and doing synchronized leg moves - just like high school cheerleaders hoping to get laid on the smelly grass under the stairs post-game. The costumes were lavish and enjoyable, tending to stay with traditional lines from the Orient with updates for modern staging. The real tragedy was the flat music and poor musical pacing. Not one song or number from the first
act was memorable or even discernible. Act II picked up and was a bit more interesting thanks to a duet for the lovers and the chorus pieces, expertly presented. Unfortunately the jarring notes from Asian tradition and ancient instruments didn't lend themselves well to the European structure of the opera. They had two narrative characters, one in more Peking opera dress and singing style, the other in more modern, Western dress and sound. This was repetitive, time consuming, and disjointed - one character would have sufficed. The orchestra was stripped down to bare essentials mostly relying on percussive instruments, including some heated ceramic glazed pots. The strings were often used percussively, lots of plucking. Overall, the sounds were to strained and forced for most to enjoy on first listening but perhaps they grow on you with repeated listening. Domingo did a great job and seemed to portray a worn ruler but man had problems with a Spanish accented English opera about a Chinese Emperor. This really was the least of my concerns given the purely ridiculous sets and strained sounds coming from the stage. Ah well, at least it was new and strange.
2 comments:
Gosh, I've been searching the net about Greg Fedderly. I was his "swing choir" partner when he was 15! Anyway you know that I can get in touch with him?
So sorry, I don't know him personally. He did a great job in Magic Flute.
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