“What if Jordan Peterson and Taylor Swift had a disagreement however then determined to like one another anyway?” mentioned my opera companion upon seeing The Magic Flute for the primary time Friday the 13th on the Met. Within the 90-minute vacation presentation, Pamina dooms herself to a lifetime of mansplaining in Sarastro’s Temple of Knowledge, his hordes exulting as the feminine Dragon of Chaos is solid into darkest oblivion.
The opera’s deranged gender politics had been mirrored within the present’s casting. With the pleasant Emily Pogorelc holding down her half with breadth and dignity whereas Duke Kim, in his Met debut as Tamino, limped via every track, barely capable of mission to the Orchestra, not to mention the Household Circle. This was an actual disgrace given what number of first-time opera goers had been within the viewers. It appeared a sterling instance of one of many opera’s fundamental themes: the unusual vicissitudes of male mediocrity. Granted, Tamino is the Ken doll of tenor roles and there isn’t a variety of room for him to shine; nonetheless, Kim did nearly nothing to deliver artistic richness to the position.
Kathryn Lewek was a spectacular and rewardingly histrionic Queen of Night time. Whereas bumbling barely via the ending of “Oh, don’t tremble,” her “Hell’s vengeance boils” was as hyped and sparkly as Christmas morning. The comedic Julie Taymor costume, the Queen’s hovering cape shivering on wires connected to her bodice, labored magically. She was by far the funniest Queen of Night time I’ve seen.
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Peixin Chen as Sarastro rounded out the efficiency along with his broad and bodied bass. He tooted across the stage like a benevolent anthropomorphic cloud out of a Mario Brothers recreation. Sean Michael Plumb as Papageno was like a spherical inexperienced child wriggling and mugging and protruding his ass, in a really Nickelodeon Junior efficiency. (Completely acceptable to the Mozart junior vacation presentation.)
Whereas he had lots extra going for him than Kim, there was one thing somewhat too studied and self-satisfied in his efficiency, like he wasn’t asking for laughter and plaudits however had already claimed them by proper. In a much less adulterated manufacturing, with a extra well-rounded solid, I consider he’d have been much less properly acquired. Nonetheless, performing beside a lackluster Kim he was a breath of recent air at any time when he arrived on stage. Thomas Capobianco’s Monostatos was equally amusing however too overtly clownish. There’s a lot costume and gimmick and flapping round demanding huge laughs, however not a lot in his efficiency took me unexpectedly.
The path all through leaned closely into broad comedy and Taymor’s darkly whimsical puppets and costumes. Lindsay Ohse’s Papagena was charming and cheerful however in any other case unremarkable; she’s on stage so briefly that her costumes had been extra memorable than her singing. She mirrored however didn’t outshine Plumb, not that the manufacturing actually provides her room to take action.
Le Bu, because the Speaker, however, took his time and took up area, giving a quiet gravitas to the position in a memorable efficiency. He’s a lush singer and a strikingly passionate actor, making an actual try to carry out with and never merely beside the opposite performers. J David Jackson as conductor was satisfactory, though, as with a number of the night’s principal performances, I didn’t get the sense that he was making an attempt very laborious. The by-the-book conducting was prim and fast however in any other case troublesome to touch upon.
The abbreviated English language vacation presentation hops from aria to aria. The English is jarringly unusual at first however finally slipped past discover within the finer performances. The 20-year-old Taymor manufacturing was none the more severe for put on. Like Mark Morris’s The Onerous Nut, Taymor’s The Magic Flute has develop into a seasonal basic, with the sharp breasted flamingo ballerinas as iconic as Sugar Plumb fairies. I cherished the ghostly, slow-moving birds and quivering silk bears.
George Tyspin’s units are like one thing out of a complicated intergalactic civilization on the precipice of extinction. Taymor and Michael Curry’s costumes are so good they make me wish to drop all the pieces and enroll in Parsons for theatrical design. The designers and crafters all understood the project and took it critically, so why doesn’t the Met deal with the manufacturing with the respect it deserves musically? If they’re certainly severe about bringing in new audiences, they may begin by throwing a extra well-rounded solid into their vacation presentation.
Photographs: Richard Termine
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