Germany Mozart, Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute): Soloists and Chorus of Theater & Philharmonie Essen. Essener Philharmoniker / Christopher Moulds (conductor). Aalto Theater Essen, 11.1.2025. (DM-D)

Production:
Director – Magdalena Fuchsberger
Set design – Monika Biegler
Video – Aaron Kitzig
Costume design – Irina Spreckelmeyer
Dramaturgy – Patricia Knebel
Children’s Chorus directors – Patrick Jasolka, Laura Kriese
Chorus directors – Klaas-Jan de Groot, Cyrille Nanchen
Cast:
Sarastro – Sebastian Pilgrim
Queen of the Night – Dimitra Kotidou
Pamina – Lisa Wittig
Tamino – Aljoscha Lennert
Papageno – Tobias Greenhalgh
First Lady – Jeanne Jansen
Second Lady – Liliana Sofia Ferreira de Sousa
Third Lady – Hyejun Melania Kwon
Monostatos – Mykhailo Kushlyk
Speaker – Baurzhan Anderzhanov
Papagena – Elia Cohen-Weissert
First Priest – Baurzhan Anderzhanov
Second Priest – Joo Youp Lee
First man in armour – Alejandro de Angel
Second man in armour – Michael Kunze
Three Boys – Members of the Children’s chorus
The stage was arranged as a white space, with doors running from the right and the left and a large projection screen at the back. This was a laboratory, AESCULAB (with the E reversed), run jointly by Sarastro and the Queen of the Night, for young men and young women to form ideal partnerships in the course of a series of tests and trials right from the start. They oversaw the action from a command level above, pushing buttons to trigger images on the screen, sometimes also mingling with their research subjects. The people working in the laboratory, such as the Three Ladies, the Three Boys and Monostatos, the Speaker and the Priests, looked like clones of the Queen of the Night and Sarastro, respectively. Papageno entered with Pamina, Tamino with Papagena, and the overture broke off soon after the start to make way, not very smoothly, for Papageno and Pamina’s duet ‘Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen‘.
Much of what happened in the opera happened in response to trigger questions that were projected in broad letters on to the back wall. Some of the spoken dialogue was left as in the original, some was changed to fit the contexts and some was omitted. Tamino’s encounter with the dragon/snake was triggered by the question Hast Du Angst / Are you Afraid, his aria ‘Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön’ was triggered by the request ‘Sing!’ At some point, the rear wall withdrew to reveal a small living room, in which the Queen of the Night, Sarastro, Tamino and Pamina were assembled, with Tamino and Pamina immobile. The Queen of the Night snapped Pamina alive with her fingers and sang ‘Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen’ to her, with a bored-looking Sarastro looking on. She then sat down and looked bored while Sarastro delivered his ‘In diesen heiligen Hallen’ aria. Sarastro then snapped his fingers, rendering Pamina immobile and Tamino alive. Impressive videos by Aaron Kitzig, helped bring the trials by fire and water to the fore. At the very end, police stormed the scene and closed down the laboratory, disillusioned characters took off their costumes, wigs and make-up, and the opera ended with the Adagio from Mozart’s Gran Partita.

Much of what happened on the stage could have been much more imaginative if it had been held together better by a stronger overall narrative. As it was, we saw an odd, predominantly disjointed sequence of ideas not held together. The orchestra was placed very high up in the pit, making the music sound as cool and harsh as the white laboratory walls. Apologies were made for vocal indisposition of Sebastian Pilgrim (Sarastro) and Tobias Greenhalgh (Papageno) before curtain-up. They struggled valiantly against the obvious odds. Dimitra Kotidou displayed impressive coloratura as the Queen of the Night. Aljoscha Lennert sang Tamino with a pleasantly strong and mellifluous voice. Lisa Wittig impressed as Pamina with her silvery-clear soprano. The minor characters were well-cast, allowing for consistency in the singing at least.
Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe
Featured Image: Aalto Opera House, Essen © Bernadette Grimmenstein