The Magic Flute – Leeds Grand Theatre

Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Libretto: Emanuel Schikanaeder

English version: Jeremy Sams

Director: James Brining

Conductor: Christoph Koncz

This is a magical, artistic triumph in every sense of the word. From the sublime music and terrific voices of all the soloists to the imaginative staging and overall effects this production succeeds in giving the audience a superb evening’s entertainment. Mozart’s masterpiece is given the full treatment in a version that will delight seasoned opera lovers as well as first timers. The prolonged applause and ovation at the end is testimony to just how much the audience appreciated the wonderful expertise of all the performers, from the youngest to the oldest and including the musicians who bring the whole piece to glorious life.

The Magic Fluteis a fairy tale which can be interpreted on various levels. On the one hand it is the story of a lovelorn prince and his equally lovelorn sidekick lost in a world of monsters, evil dark queens and mystical temples who set out on a quest to rescue a beautiful princess with the aid of a magic flute and magic bells and who must undergo and pass a series of trials along the way in order to succeed. It can also be seen as an allegory about finding your way in the world, the power of love and the human search for lasting peace and happiness.

Egor Zhuravskii, a Russian-Ukrainian tenor, plays the prince Tamino and Claire Lees is the heroine Pamina. They make an engaging couple and their duets are faultless. Emyr Wyn Jones gets all the laughs as the birdcatcher Papageno, milking every scene and getting his deserved reward at the end to the delight of the audience. Msimelelo Mbali makes a very regal Sarastro, the assumed villain as leader of the temple with an astonishing bass voice. Colin Judson makes a very nasty and creepy Monostratos who has evil designs of his own on Pamina and gets his come-uppance. Anna Dennis is absolutely superb in the very vocally demanding part of Queen of the Night. Her famous aria in the second act does not disappoint and gets the loudest applause of the night. She has an equally difficult aria in the first act which never seems to get as much acknowledgement but which deserves equal praise. The roles of the three ladies (Charlie Drummond, Katie Sharpe and Hazel Croft) also deserve mention for their ensemble performance and magical interludes as the Queen of the Night’s handmaidens. They are comical and menacing in equal measure and resemble something out of The Handmaid’s Talewith their dresses and headgear. All these principal performers as well as the entire company do full justice to the arias, duets and ensembles and bring this fantastical world to glorious life.

The setting and staging is a visual treat. The walls move and the set shape-shifts as the story progresses. Different projections and lighting effects are very effective in pulling the audience into this fairy-tale atmosphere, whilst costumes blend fantasy and reality. The Queen of the Night, for example, looks like a mixture of dark evil queen right out of Disney, a scarecrow and Sunset Boulevardactress whilst the Temple, or cult, of Sarastro’s world is full of uniforms and order. The opening scene is very interesting and imaginative, with it being set in a grand house with a dinner party gathering going on. The couple’s little girl is trying to get to sleep, playing with her toys and reading. The idea is that the action which follows is conjured up out of her imagination. All this opening action takes place whilst the famous overture is being played, which is very different from the usual practice of listening to it as a separate piece before the curtain opens. This creative introduction gives continuity to the whole and puts the audience on their toes right from the beginning.

The Magic Fluteis thought to allude to several symbols and rites of the Freemasons. Mozart and Schikanaeder were both freemasons themselves. You therefore get the repeated use of the number three – three ladies, three children, three trials, three doors to Sarastro’s palace, three majestic chords to open the overture, the overture written in E Major which has three flats – and so on. There are too many examples for it to be a coincidence. It is also full of opposites and contrasts – man/woman, young/old, day/night, light/dark, musical extremes of pitch (unusually low F2 of Sarastro compared with F6 range of the Queen of the Night), ignorance/knowledge.

Highly recommended to see it while you can.

Runs until 11th October 2024, before touring