Magic Flute in Santa Barbara

[BgMstr4u]

Last Sunday, August 4, I attended one of the two performances of The Magic Flute put on the the Music Academy of the West, a summer music program for young professional musicians in Santa Barbara. It was, in a word, terrific. One of the best I've ever seen.

 

Some standouts, young singers to watch: John Brancy (Papageno) - perfect voice, terrific stage presence, good actor. I think he won the Mariilyn Horne award for opera singers (she is very active in this program, well known in SB); Claire de Sévigné (Queen of the Night) - absolutely on pitch and on point, a voice to die for in one of the greatest soprano roles ever; Andrew Haji (Tamino) - wonderful tenor voice, but the body type is not svelte; Julie Adams (Pamina) - wonderful clear voice and good acting.

 

The conductor was Warren Jones and the stage director was David Paul. Orchestra made up of young pro musicians from the program. The staging had the cute crawling animals now obligatory in productions of TMF, but they worked. Held in the Granada Theatre on State Street, nicely renovated a few years ago for legitimate concert, opera and stage productions. The audience was a nice mix of older SB types and younger people.

 

The Music Academy has an opera production toward the end of the program's run early in August every year, and if this production was any indication, it is worth looking for in the future.

[bostonman]

Sounds like fun!

 

I would argue, though, that the Queen Of The Night is not really "one of the greatest soprano roles ever." Yes, her music is wonderful, and exceedingly tough, but as a ROLE, she has absolutely nothing to go on. Two arias, and a bit of the finale. Not much stage time at all, and a very one-dimensional character (aided, at least, by the fact that the perception of the story shifts - at first she seems like a good force, but that changes when the scene shifts to Sarastro's palace). Plus it can be a long opera (especially depending on how much dialogue is used, etc), so she gets to sit around a lot while everyone else has the fun. I imagine most sopranos would much rather sing a role with more substance.

[BgMstr4u]

You are quite right to distinguish between the music and the role, and I happily accept your comment. The music in the two arias is amazing, the part is kind of weird. Your statement "at first she seems like a good force" is quite apt, with the emphasis on seems. She is after all the queen of darkness, of night, and what starts out as a more than somewhat shrill motherly lament in the first aria turns into a demand for patricide in the second. Not really a nice lady. But there is no real stage action for her: she is almost purely symbolic.

 

There are two aspects of TMF which make it difficult for politically correct types to warm to it: the blatant sexism (from our point of view) and racism. As written Monostatos, the bad guy, is black, and distinct reference is made to skin color, tying it to his bad character and bad behavior. This was excised from the production, replaced by references to his being ugly. I guess being ugly in Santa Barbara is deemed a sufficient cause for general badness (which may in fact be the prevailing sentiment in SB!). The other is so deeply ingrained in the story it can't be changed: it is about the triumph of benevolent patriarchy, Masonic style. There were the expected audience reactions at the moments of patriarchal manifestation.

[bostonman]

The other is so deeply ingrained in the story it can't be changed: it is about the triumph of benevolent patriarchy, Masonic style. There were the expected audience reactions at the moments of patriarchal manifestation.

 

And yet, when he can within this story, Mozart does make a good case for the women. The Queen may be nothing more than a figurehead that spouts high F's, lol, but her 3 Ladies are wonderful characters (who start the show off by slaying a monster, lol). And Pamina, like many of Mozart's heroines, gets some of the most touching, humbly human moments in the opera. In fact, this opera has one of my favorite passages Mozart ever wrote - the orchestra's ending to Pamina's "Ach, ich fuls." (And in particular, the very end of that passage, with the flat 2 scale degree, for any of you here that know your music theory, lol. It's that unexpected "flat" note that really nails that sense of grief.) If you don't feel Pamina's utter heartbreak in that music, you are simply not human, lol. For all the male superiority nonsense in the story, lol, it's moments like that where Mozart really delves so perfectly into the human condition.

[BgMstr4u]

You are absolutely right. Thank you for that expert explication!

[actor61]

I must be very, very picky but I have yet to see a production of "The Magic Flute" that didn't bore the crap out of me, including the film. It is one of the few operas that I much prefer listening to than watching. I have attended many concerts performed by the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara and they have all been delightful, and extremely professional.

[bostonman]

I must be very, very picky but I have yet to see a production of "The Magic Flute" that didn't bore the crap out of me, including the film. It is one of the few operas that I much prefer listening to than watching. I have attended many concerts performed by the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara and they have all been delightful, and extremely professional.

 

Well, no one can love everything, lol. For myself, I would put the Mozart/Da Ponte operas first - Le Nozze Di Figaro will always be my favorite, followed by Don Giovanni and Cosi. But I find much to love in The Magic Flute as well as in Abduction. And Clemenza di Tito, which I know the least of all the mature operas (and I've never actually seen, only heard), which also has a lot of gorgeous music. And Idomeneo, which like Clemenza, is gorgeous but a bit more in the "opera seria" mode, and likewise can be a bit static to watch. But of them all, I'd always pick Figaro.

[actor61]

Don Giovanni is my all time favorite. The music is thrilling from beginning to end.

[bostonman]

Don Giovanni is my all time favorite. The music is thrilling from beginning to end.

 

And, since I mentioned a favorite orchestral passage from The Magic Flute above, I should also mention another huge favorite, which happens to be from Don Giovanni. It's the end of the opening trio, as the Commendatore dies. The music outlines a descending chromatic scale which seems appropriate to depict the nobleman's life slipping away. But the scale happens a second time, and this time it doesn't resolve "properly," kind of melting instead into a new key, and right into the recitative that follows. Not only is it surprising and dramatic (and always chilling), but the perfect way to describe an "incomplete" death - as of course the Commendatore will be back later in live statue form...

[whipped guy]

Another vote for Don Giovanni here... It was the first mainstream opera that I listened to all the way through. (The first opera I actually listened to was Giovanni Paisiello's Il Socrate Imaginario... long story... and it captivated me to want to discover more opera.) It was the Giulini recording... considered a classic today... However, in my book over-rated as it is a Don Giovanni without a suave Don... though the women are quite fine. Don Giovanni was also the first opera recording I owned and was a Christmas gift a few months later... The Leinsdorf recording with the classic combo of Siepi and Corena as master and servant. Don Giovanni has occupied a special place for me ever since. I consider it a touchstone of civilization and Mozart's greatest achievement... Though today Così fan Tutte is often mentioned in that regard.

 

Regarding La Clemenza di Tito, it may be a lesser work, but the excellence of its best pages can not be overlooked. The same goes for Idomeneo.

 

Also, I agree with Bostonman about that passage in Don G... Incidentally the duet that follows is probably one of my all time favorite operatic set pieces.

[whipped guy]

One more comment regarding Bostonman's favorite scene from Don Giovanni that I need to add to my posting above... and this only points to the fact that DaPonte and Mozart take us through virtually every human emotion during the course of the piece... As the orchestra subsides depicting that unresolved death, Leporello cracks a joke as the recitative begins, "Chi è morto, voi o il vecchio?" (Who is dead, you or the old man?) It tells us that we are definitely in a "dramma giocoso" where the world of opera buffa hovers over the proceedings. That's what makes the piece so great... and we're are even dragged down into the fiery depths of hell before it is all over... Gotta love it!

[bostonman]

One more comment regarding Bostonman's favorite scene from Don Giovanni that I need to add to my posting above... and this only points to the fact that DaPonte and Mozart take us through virtually every human emotion during the course of the piece... As the orchestra subsides depicting that unresolved death, Leporello cracks a joke as the recitative begins, "Chi è morto, voi o il vecchio?" (Who is dead, you or the old man?) It tells us that we are definitely in a "dramma giocoso" where the world of opera buffa hovers over the proceedings. That's what makes the piece so great... and we're are even dragged down into the fiery depths of hell before it is all over... Gotta love it!

 

And something in the opposite direction happens at the end of the opera, in the final "wrap-up" sextet (a number that used to get cut, unfortunately). After Leporello attempts to describe the incident with the statue to the rest of the group, Elvira (with echoes from the others) realizes that this was the ghostly sight she saw earlier that sent her screaming from the castle. As she relates this, the bustling major-mode music suddenly turns to minor, with some thorny dissonances as the rest of the cast joins in. A reminder that, likewise, this is not JUST opera buffa - we have indeed just seen Don Giovanni dragged down to hell, and Mozart doesn't want us to forget the impact of that, even as everyone is rejoicing at the result.

[whipped guy]

...this is not JUST opera buffa - we have indeed just seen Don Giovanni dragged down to hell, and Mozart doesn't want us to forget the impact of that, even as everyone is rejoicing at the result.

Well, it certainly is not your run of the mill opera buffa even though Mozart supposedly considered it an opera buffa... and the libretto is written more or less in an opera buffa style so the music follows more of an opera buffa format as opposed to an opera seria format. At a slightly later time and place the opera probably would have been classified as an opera semiseria a genre that somewhat came into vogue at the beginning of the 19th Century then fell into oblivion.

 

In summary, Don Giovanni has more in common the the other da Ponte operas when compared to true opere serie auch as La Clemenza di Tito and Idomeneo. Of course, the opera does have it's serious moments. Still, I prefer to think of Don G as a dark comedy as opposed to a serious opera with comedic overtones... I know that the likes of Furtwangler, Bohm, and von Karajan would probably disagree, but that's how I see things... at least now. Actually, at one time I wished that the opera ended with Giovanni's demise and thought the epilog was superfluous. I have since changed my mind about that!

[+ Charlie]

I have seen a few productions of La Clemenza di Tito, most notably at the Staatsoper in Berlin when it was still East Germany (the guards at Checkpoint Charlie loved to slow down westerners whom they recognized as operagoers until one had to run to make the curtain), and except for a few moments of interesting drama, it is much more enjoyable to listen to than to watch.

[whipped guy]

Years ago at the MET when Sesto's chains were removed they were over zealously thrown into the orchestra pit. When the Sesto, Tatiana Troyanos took her curtain call the shackles were "presented" to her by one of the members of the orchestra from the pit. She got quite a kick out of it...

 

in any event, Clemenza is your typical static opera seria, but given Mozart's genius it does have its moments... I especially like the choral transition to the last scene after Vitellia's aria "Non più di fiori."