Die Zauberflöte

2003, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

(Will Hartmann, Dorothea Röschmann, Simon Keenlyside, Diana Damrau, Franz-Joseph Selig, Adrian Thompson; Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, cond. Colin Davis)

(dir. David McVicar; video dir. Sue Judd)

Anyone expecting a charming fairy-tale Magic Flute with lavish, colorful scenery will be taken aback by this unconventional production. The fantasy world of this Flute is a dark, mystical one with an almost minimalist aesthetic. Somber, vaguely 18^th century set pieces slide almost imperceptibly onto and off of the darkly lit, often misty stage. The characters likewise Read the rest of this entry »

Il Barbiere di Siviglia

1957, EMI

(Tito Gobbi, Maria Callas, Luigi Alva, Fritz Ollendorf, Nicola Zaccaria, Gabriella Carturan; Philharmonia Chorus; Philharmonia Orchestra, cond. Alceo Galliera)

This Barbiere has been praised again and again as the definitive recording of Rossini’s masterpiece. Granted, by modern standards of Rossini scholarship it’s an “inauthentic” performance. All the standard cuts are in place (including, as was usual for the day, one recitative passage whose absence leaves a gaping plot hole), as are transpositions, line-reassignments, and an elaborate cadenza added to “Contro un cor” for the superstar soprano Rosina who sings it. But I defy Read the rest of this entry »

Die Zauberflöte

1982, Salzburg Festival

(Peter Schreier, Ileana Cotrubas, Christian Boesch, Edita Gruberova, Martti Talvela, Horst Heistermann; Wiener Staatsopernchor; Wiener Philharmoniker, cond. James Levine)

(dir. Jean-Pierre Ponnelle; video dir. Brian Large)

The ever-quirky yet ever-insightful Jean-Pierre Ponnelle presents his Flute very much as an Enlightenment allegory. The costumes are 18^th century dress, in Ponnelle’s usual elegantly subdued color scheme. The Queen of the Night and her Ladies, with their extravagant gowns and highly dramatic stage presences, seem to personify the excesses of the Baroque period, while Sarastro Read the rest of this entry »

Il Barbiere di Siviglia

1989, Metropolitan Opera

(Leo Nucci, Kathleen Battle, Rockwell Blake, Enzo Dara, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Loretta di Franco; Metropolitan Opera Chorus; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, cond. Ralf Weikert)

(dir. John Cox; video dir. Brian Large)

This all-star Met Barbiere’s defining quality is old-fashioned charm. Its massive revolving set is quintessential eye-candy, complete with palm trees and Moorish architecture to evoke the Sevillian setting, and though the colorful costumes update the action from Beaumarchais’s 18^th century to Rossini’s own early 19^th, the atmosphere is cozily traditional. The staging is pert, gently witty and funny with no excessive zaniness. Some of the jokes Read the rest of this entry »

La Cenerentola

1983, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

(Kathleen Kuhlmann, Laurence Dale, Claudio Desderi, Alberto Rinaldi, Roderick Kennedy, Marta Taddei, Laura Zannini; Glyndebourne Chorus; London Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Donato Renzetti)

(dir. John Cox; video dir. John Vernon)

This Cenerentola is charming, but its distinctly fairy-tale atmosphere is slightly un-Rossinian. The fact that the libretto includes no magic seems hardly to matter here. With its two-dimensional, sepia and gold-toned sets that resemble an old-fashioned storybook, the stylized costumes that set the story in the 17^th century Cavalier era, the ridiculous putty noses worn by Clorinda and Tisbe, and the puppet show used to depict the Act II thunderstorm, the production’s atmosphere Read the rest of this entry »

Madama Butterfly

1957, RCA Victor

(Anna Moffo, Cesare Valletti, Rosalind Elias, Renato Cesari, Mario Carlin; Rome Opera Chorus; Rome Opera Orchestra, cond. Erich Leinsdorf)

This lightweight yet appealing Butterfly emphasizes the youthfulness of its characters, and all the vulnerability, passion and folly implied therein, by casting unusually light lyric voices in the principle roles – chiefly by casting Anna Moffo, lyric coloratura extraordinaire, as the usually spinto-voiced heroine. At age 25 and at the beginning of her career, she sings with a sweetness, purity, delicacy and freshness of tone Read the rest of this entry »

Die Zauberflöte

1978, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

 (Leo Goeke, Felicity Lott, Benjamin Luxon, May Sandoz, Thomas Thomaschke, John Fryatt; Glyndebourne Festival Chorus; London Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Bernard Haitink)

(dir. John Cox; video dir. Dave Heather)

This 1978 Flute is noteworthy for one chief reason: it served as the debut for the set and costume designs of David Hockney. His enchanting Flute designs have since been seen in various distinguished opera houses, but here, on a small scale in the old Glyndebourne theatre, was where they first appeared. With two-dimensional wing-and-drop scenery in solid, vibrant colors, Hockney presents us with a fantasy vision of ancient Egypt and deftly traces Tamino and Pamina’s journey from chaos to order, contrasting the unruly trees, rocks and stars of the Queen of the Night’s wild realm with the Read the rest of this entry »