The Magic Flute

13th and 14th March

The Lowry, Salford

*** The magic flute story itself is an accessible one ***

*** Anna Dennis skilfully weaves her way through these notes as her vocal range is phenomenal ***

Opera North’s – The Magic Flute comes to the Lowry this week in part of a double bill with Wagner’s The flying Dutchman playing on 15th March. The Magic Flute with penned by Mozart and was tonight sung in English. Patrick Lange was our conductor for the evening he along with a vast orchestra taking up the first row of seats were superb. There’s nothing quite like a real orchestra.

Our hero is Prince Tamino, he is given a quest to save Pamina (The Queen of the Night’s daughter). He is told she has been enslaved by an evil demon called Sarastro. On his quest he is accompanied by Papageno (a bird catcher). The Queen of the Night attendants give Tamino a magic flute and Papageno magical bells. The three sopranos playing her attendants need a special mention (Charlie Drummond, Kathryn Sharpe and Hazel Croft), their three voices harmonising were like honey, and they had occasional fierce moment when they all wielded lightsabres to fend off some type of evil paper mâché monsters! The flute has the power to turn sadness into happiness and joy and the magical bells have the power of protection. On meeting Saratro they duo finds that he is not evil, but leader of a brotherhood who are on a quest of enlightenment. Justin Hopkins’s strong bass tones bring Saratro to life. He encourages the two to follow a new quest, to also seek enlightenment so that they find their loves. Unlike the original, we find that the whole story is in fact little girl’s dream! This didn’t work for us and wasn’t really needed, we would occasionally see an awkward girl on the side on the stage watching on, which didn’t add to the production but was more of a distraction.

Trystan Llŷr Griffiths plays the part of Tamino. He has a powerful tenor voice. He holds the full attention of the audience and is well cast against his love interest Pamina (Soraya Mafi) They have a rich chemistry together that we felt was believable in the trials that they faced during their quest.

Anna Dennis was the soprano playing the evil ‘Queen of the Night’. Anna has a wonderful energy and vocal skill which comes through on her seemingly effortlessly delivery. The Queen of the Nights rendition of ‘Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen’ – which translates as ‘Hell's Vengeance Boils in My Heart’, is one of Mozart’s most famous pieces. It is known for its top F, high C, and B flat all in repetitive quick succession. Anna skilfully weaves her way through these notes as her vocal range is phenomenal. Anna delivers this aria gloriously, with the audience lapping up every note up with pure appreciation.

I really wanted to warm to the comedic character Papageno (the bird catcher). I found him a tad annoying though others around me loved him and cheered him at the curtain call. The dulcet Welsh bass tones of Emyr Wyn Jones plays Papageno. His deep bass vocals are coupled with the light but energetic voice of Papagena who was the soprano Pasquale Orchard. We see this match sing the timeless duet Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa. The scene between finds Papageno thinking about suicide until Papagena starts to sing with him, concluding in them both finding one another and a future together.

The story would benefit from some updating as it still holds many old, outdated stereotypes of men saving women from themselves. The magic flute story itself is an accessible one that is easily understood, like Romeo and Juliet or midsummers night dream in Shakespeare would be opposed to Richard 3rd. This version of magic Flute is a good entry point to opera especially as it is performed in English instead of its original German. One to check out whilst here at the lowry.
Tickets still available for tonight booking via below:

Www.thelowry.com/whats-on/101//opera-north-the-magic-flute