Mozart: Die Zauberflöte

Guildhall School Theatre, London 26 November 2007

Sian Edwards conductor
William Kerley director
Tom Rogers designer

Adrian Ward - Tamino
Sarah Power -Pamina
Emily Rowley Jones - Queen of the Night
Ritz de Ridder - Sarasto
John Baker - Monostatos
Lukas Kargl - Papageno
Daire Halpin - Papagena

This newest version, based on the burgeoning "virtual reality" phenomenon, is updated by William Kerley to a virtual world of today, and takes as its starting point the vast empires of city offices which surround the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

By applying his interpretation with consistency, not forgetting the reassuring element of repetition which is usual in myth, fairy tales and seasonal pantomimes, Kerley has produced (for a too few sold-out performances) a version of this best-loved opera which could be just the thing to draw a different, younger audience into the opera house.

Virtual reality * has even progressed now to the point, hard-to-comprehend by outsiders, where there is policing for "real" crime done for "real" money out in cyber-space. This latest outlet for the imagination has attracted many millions - yes, millions - of people seeking escape from reality, and is on a daily basis absorbing hours of their time on line...

The GSMD Zauberflöte succeeds by first building upon musical strengths, notably the pacing by Sian Edwards of a college orchestra of professional quality and on top form; for me, far better than RAM's recent Mozart under Sir Colin Davis.

From the first bars of the overture this Zauberflöte felt comfortable, and perfectly adjusted to the acoustic, as it moved through the evening in support of the bizarre doings on stage.

Those mind-boggled a colleague so that she couldn't take her eyes away up to the surtitles on high - written by Kerley, they were worth attention, gently humorous and in a style which harmonised with the action.

It was all conceived as in the head of a dull office-worker's far more exciting avatar called Tamino, whose threatening serpent was a huge computer mouse.

The Queen of the Night's Three Ladies decked out in Japonaiserie derive their treatment throughout from the original libretto - Tamino enters in a splendid Japanese hunting costume!

The Three Girls who rode small tricycles (young adults - not boys as Mozart specified) are full-time students on the Opera Associates course, as were the members of the excellent chorus.. It was within the genre's conventions that their important reappearances maintained a constant look (pace The Times critic: three tartan-skirted lasses tricycling round - - by their fourth appearance my joy had burst - - ).

In the '60s my son had been amongst the Three Boys in two Covent Garden runs of Zauberflöte but maybe it would be hard to cast a trio of boys from the Guildhall Juniors, as might have been hoped.

Ingenuities abound, and we too become quite at home in Tamino's virtual world, until his alter-ego has to return to office life 'reality' at the end of the opera...

The Pamina, Sarah Power [pictured comforting Papageno, Lukas Kargl] tugged at the heart strings; all was bound to come right for him and his Papagena, whose as yet unconceived children were represented by their breaking eggs together to make an omelette!

Casting from the Guildhall's current Opera Course was generally strong and preparation by the team (all named in the programme) very thorough.

Emily Rowley Jones, the remarkable Queen of the Night, was so securely within her vocal comfort zone that I wondered if she'd practised the role up to several tones higher? No worry about her high Fs. Not terrifying nor conveying a sense of great danger for anyone, by the end she seemed to be good friends with the benign Sarastro, Ritz de Ridder, whose voice was just a little fragile for the role (but there can't be a wide choice of mature basses amongst the current students).

Everyone did their bit in a real ensemble production, with excellent coordination between singers orchestra and scene changers. Huge praise for the quite elaborate set of Tom Rogers and the props (astonishing creations for the ordeals); for the coaches (singing and drama), the movement specialist Victoria Newlyn; well, everyone really.

If they fail to take the opportunity to make a high quality video/DVD of this Zauberflöte, GSMD will in the future rue a missed chance.

Peter Grahame Woolf

* See Crime hits the digital frontier [Guardian 17 November 2007]

See also Classical Source: http://www.classicalsource.com/db_control/db_concert_review.php?id=5232

Photos: Nobby Clark