The Magic Flute under the magic baton of Claudio Abbado
Written: Oct 20 '06 (Updated Apr 21 '08)
Product Rating:
Pros: Mozart music youthfully performed. Röschmann's Pamina, Pape's Sarastro
Cons: Off pitched 3 Ladies. Miklosa could do better as Queen of the Night.
The Bottom Line: Very nice fresh take on well known (and loved) music. Great singing especially by Pamina and Sarastro. One of the best recordings of the opera around.
This audio CD from Deutsche Grammophon is a live recording from a staged performance of Mozart's popular Singspiel (an opera with spoken dialogues between sung arias) from Modena, Italy in 2005. This opera is based on the Freemason-theme text by Emanuel Schikaneder. The plot is rather complicated and the opera is full of symbolism consistent with the Freemason tenet. I am not a Freemason and won’t be discussing these symbolism, but it is interesting to note that for all the talk about how women should submit to men, all the female characters are more vividly written with personality than their male counterparts in this opera.
Synopsis:
Before the beginning of the opera proper, the supernatural being Die Königin der Nacht (Queen of the Night), is feuding with the priest Sarastro, to whom her deceased husband had given his Seven Circle of Star (the source of his magical power) rather than to his wife due to his belief that women should follow men’s lead. Sarastro returns the favor by abducting the Queen’s daughter Pamina to his temple to keep her from becoming like her disagreeable mum (not such a bad thing, really, when you have a mum like this one).
At this point in the story, the opera begins with Prince Tamino having a feud of his own with a giant snake. The snake is either very scary or very stinky ... as he faints as it approaches and so doesn’t witness his own rescue by the Queen’s three ladies. They slay the snake without breaking a sweat, and then launch into one of the most charming all girls trio (preferably soprano/mezzo/contralto) around, each arguing for the other 2 to leave her alone with this handsome prince.
Since no 3 dive could ever agree on such matter, they all leave and Tamino wakes up to see the relentlessly childish bird-catcher Papageno nearby and mistakes him for his rescuer. The mistake is amended in a rather heavy handed manner by the displeased Three Ladies, returning to give him the portrait of Pamina, the Queen’s “kidnapped” daughter and to herald the approach of their mistress. Upon looking at Pamina's portrait, Tamino is smitten on the spot, so when the Queen commands him to go with Papageno on a mission to rescue her daughter (O zittre nicht), he is very happy to comply (who can really say no to the Queen and her high F, anyhow?). For their protection, the Queen gives Tamino the magic flute and Papageno the magic bells, which supposedly have soothing effects on their enemies.
Well, Sarastro turns out to be the good guy, and the 2 heroes resolve to join his temple. They are helped by Three Little Boys and Pamina herself (when she isn’t busy attempting suicide) in going through 3 initiation/purification process. While all that is happening, Pamina is harassed by Monostatos (the black and horny Moor in the temple who tries to rape her thrice in one opera) and her own mommy dearest the Queen, who lovingly screeches 4 soprano high F’s at her daughter in the process of ordering her to assassinate Sarastro for the 7 Circles of Star (Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen (The vengence of hell boils in my heart!)).
Pamina’ ordeal isn’t helped when her beloved Tamino and friend Papageno refuse to talk to her (it’s one of their 3 initiation trials), this precipitates a heart-breaking aria Ach! Ich fühl! and her 1st suicide attempt. Thankfully the Queen’s Three Little Boys interfere, and they all go off to help their heroes instead. Leaving Tamino and Pamina to face their final initiation themselves, Papageno finally finds his match in the no less childish Papagena to the childishly fantastic duet of Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-Papagena!.
** Spoiler**
===Spoiler for non-opera buffs who don’t want to know the ending===
The Queen, whose evil schemes have all back-fired, then invades the temple and is vanquished without much fanfare. And all rejoice and hail the new beginning to the golden era of the Freemason tenet ‘Die Strahlen der Sonne vertreiben die Nacht (The sun’s rays drive away the night)’.
Cast Tamino (a heroic prince, doesn’t like big snake) ::: Christoph Stehl (tenor)
Papageno (Tamino’s bird-catcher side-kick) ::: Hanno Müller-Brachmann (baritone)
The Queen of the Night (an ever-angry formerly powerful magical woman figure) ::: Erika Miklosa (coloratura soprano)
Pamina (the Queen of the Night’s suicide-prone daughter) ::: Dorothea Röschmann (lyric soprano)
Sarastro (The High Priest of Isis and Osiris) ::: Rene Pape (bass)
Monostatos (A Moor at Sarastro’s temple who turns to the dark side) ::: Kurt Azesberger (tenor)
Papagena (a bird-woman match for Papageno) ::: Julia Kleiter (soprano)
Conductor: Claudio Abbado / Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Chorus Master: Erwin Ortner / Arnold Schoenberg Chor
This is a very fresh sounding and musically engaging performance.’ Maestro Claudio Abbado and his Mahler Chamber Orchestra do a wonderful job of contrasting the music of the more ‘mature’ characters of Tamino, Pamina, and Sarastro from the ‘child-like’ characters of Papageno & Papagena. And the ‘mixed’ duets between the 2 types are engagingly and perfectly blended, especially in Act I’s Bei Mannern welche Liebe fühlen between Pamina and Papageno. There is a welcoming sense of magic in this orchestral performance, as if listening to a fairy tale enthusiastically told. The only quibbles I can offer are some off-pitch singing by the 3 ladies, and that Abbado’s pace is so speedy that sometimes the singers struggle to keep up with the orchestra. These are really minor quibbles since this is a live performance.
On the lead singing front, what more lavish praise can I give in describing the German soprano Dorothea Röschmann’s singing? That she has a beautiful voice is a given, but there is also an approachable earthy quality to it with a wonderful touch of metal at the top. She aptly lightens or darkens her voice to enhance her story telling. This Pamina is earnest, but not overly so. She sounds such an optimistic but vulnerable creature that you just have to feel the need to protect her. Her Ach, ich fühl's, es ist verschwunden (Ah, I feel the happy love forever vanished) is alarmingly heart breaking (especially since this aria is sung before Pamina's 1st suicide attempt). She sings on the breath and the way she integrates her inhalations into her phrasing to highlight Pamina’s distress is very effectively done.
Papageno is sung here by the baritone Hanno Müller-Brachmann. He has a very pleasing full bodied baritone voice with wonderful low notes (as evidence in Bei Mannern duet with Pamina). This is a very engaging and more multi-layered portrayal of this role than usual! I’ve always thought of Papageno as one of those immature boys who want to be treated like an adult without having to act like one. Herr Müller-Brachmann’s Papageno is more mature than that.... and more refined. I like this variation. This Papageno is well matched both in voice and characterization by the excellent fresh-voiced Papagena of Julia Kleiter.
The German bass Rene Pape is the Big Name of this cast. It is easy to take Herr Pape for granted as he makes singing Sarastro sounds so easy. Not even the tortuously low lines could induce even a slightest hint of strain in his voice. This Sarastro is both wise and approachable, not something I could say of many others on record. The Tamino of Christoph Stehl is also very well sung. His voice is noble and his phrasing intelligent. Beautiful sense of legato and musicality is displayed in his Act I ‘Dies bildnis’, another major Mozart tenor in the making he is, I reckon.
But there is no good ‘Magic Flute’ without a good Queen of the Night, and that we have here in the Hungarian coloratura soprano Erika Miklosa. To find herself a place in this short but highly demanding role, Miklosa has stiff competitions in the likes of Edita Gruberova, Lucia Popp, Natalie Dessay and Diana Damrau. All of whom were/are great Queen of the Night. This young singer may develop to join that revere group in the future, but as of this recording the voice lacks enough texture to make the Queen convincingly a powerful and menacing being. Her stratospheric high F’s are solid as a rock and accurate, nonetheless. And she takes great care to pronounce things very clearly (maybe too much, since it doesn’t sound very natural or spontaneous but like she's reading a line). Not a great Queen yet, but definitely a good one.
All in all, a solid and fresh performance of one of the freshest of Mozart opera. Highly recommended.
2 CD. Sound quality is exceptionally good despite the ‘live’ nature of this recording.
Booklet contains a note on the opera, short synopsis and libretto in French, German,and English.
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