Theater Review
The Magic Flute W.A. Mozart
Theater Lüneburg, 17.01.06 (in German)
I am not certain, but I am pretty sure that this was the first time I've heard the entirety of Die Zauberflüte. It is lovely music, and beautiful through out. (Some parts more than others, but very few were "boring" parts.) The beginning confused me, (not being sure what the story was, and why these three women were singing around the one tired man.) -But the music was divine.
I wasn't sure then, if the whole plot would go by me. But I caught about a thrird or a quarter of the words, and had after that a clear enough idea to know what was going on. (Mostly; WHY Pamina was kept prisoner, and What the king was going on about was completely lost to me.)
Now then... this specific production. Hmmmm... I don't think I could honestly say I appreciated it. It could have been because I didn't understand most of the text, but it looked to me like the staging was nonsense. Most of the costumes and sets and blocking, (the movements of people on the stage,) didn't add a single thing to the performance. Some looked like half-formed ideas. Some of them were fully formed ideas, but were meaningless. Some of the ideas were full, and contributed to the performance... but in ways I didn't like. (An example being the Queen of the Night and her three female helpers being dressed in dark blue, -in odd costumes, and having violet bee-hive hairdos.)
It was not all, ALL bad though; Pamnio was decently dressed. Pamina was more daringly, -less conservatively dressed, but I liked the style she was given, and found it better than Pamino. Papageno was Good. I didn't like his costume so much at the beginning, but I grew accustomed to it, and then found it quite suitable. Papegena was the best though. She delighted me. Pure delight.
Now, I have to be fair, and not forget to mention that they all did a good job singing, even if many of them looked... foolish, or amateur, doing it. The musical score alone didn't strike me, in the first trio, it was the voices of the women. And all the singers which came after too. (There were some places where it could have been better balanced, or once or twice when they didn't get the exact tempo right. But these were minor, technical points. Oh, and the three young boys were too quiet, but still quite good aside from that.)
So... good music, good singing of it, but lacking in the production side. I don't think I'll watch it from the house again. -But... if there's a chance, I might sit back stage; There, I could hear the nice music, but also have something else to look at.