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Die Zauberflote at the Royal Opera House, London
Fairytale prince … Toby Spence (Tamino) in Die Zauberflöte at the Royal Opera House, London. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian
Fairytale prince … Toby Spence (Tamino) in Die Zauberflöte at the Royal Opera House, London. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian

Die Zauberflöte review – fairytale cast have plenty of Mozart magic

This article is more than 9 years old
Royal Opera House, London
David McVicar’s 12-year-old production is still going strong thanks to its single vision and inspired casting and conducting

Mozart’s opera is an amalgam of several different things: a fairytale, an allegory of Freemasonry, a quest, a parable of spiritual enlightenment and a popular Viennese comedy whose closest equivalent in modern British theatre would be pantomime. The ongoing success of David McVicar’s production, handsomely designed by John Macfarlane, lies in its ability to balance all these diverse elements within one single vision; now 12 years old, it has proved to be an extremely worthwhile investment.

There is a strong cast for the current revival. Every inch the fairytale prince, Toby Spence delivers a clean and elegantly sung Tamino. He is partnered by the US soprano Janai Brugger, a newcomer to the Royal Opera whose performance, both vocal and physical, is more than promising; she offers a Pamina of unflawed tonal clarity and subtle colouring, beautifully shaded in detail, and like Spence she looks the part as well as proving a fluent actor.

Markus Werba’s Papageno is vital and ebullient, but equally attentive to the sung and spoken text; his warm-hearted, ordinary-bloke-in-the-street characterisation supplies the bulk of the opera’s comic element with genuine success. Balancing Werba’s demotic lightness is the weighty Sarastro of Georg Zeppenfeld, whose substantial and sonorous bass is near ideal in the role.

Marginally less secure is the Queen of the Night, Anna Siminska, a few of whose stratospheric high notes were just wide of their aim on the first night; but her fiercely imperious manner was just right.

Smaller roles go well, too, especially Colin Judson’s sinister Monostatos, Rhian Lois’s cheeky Papagena and Benjamin Bevan’s grandly articulate Speaker. The Three Ladies and the Three Boys form two impressive teams, while conductor Cornelius Meister favours brisk tempi and lucid textures, drawing focused playing from the orchestra.

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