During a visit to New York last week I went with my father-in-law to a performance of Zauberflöte at the Metropolitan Opera. I thought carefully about which opera to go to, and I was rather tempted by La Gioconda, because I associate it so strongly with Metropolitan Opera quizzes, but decided that since the last two operas I saw are among the darkest in the repertoire, I wanted something with a happy ending.
I believe that this production is popular with audiences, but we felt it was rather a triumph of style over substance. The rotating set which dominated the centre of the stage reminded me of nothing so much as a Japanese pachinko parlour with its mirrors and neon strip lighting. I kept on wondering what the next gimmick would be instead of concentrating on the action and the singing. Of course I should have remembered to pack my opera glasses as up in the dress circle it wasn’t too easy to read people’s expressions. But they weren’t all lost on me. After hearing Bei Männern, which could so easily be a love duet, it seemed to me rather a shame that Pamina and Papageno weren’t paired up at the end!
We were quite happy with the singing, my only quibble being that some of Sarastro’s low notes were a bit indeterminate. The Met orchestra performed adequately, though I think Covent Garden’s might have brought more colour and verve to the score.
Audience participation in the form of mid-act applause is more than you get in Britain, and the man behind me chuckled knowingly at many places. As these weren’t all obviously funny to me, I wondered if I was suffering sense of humour failure (I never have really understood Austrian humour anyway) or whether his chuckling was just random. Also not very funny was being repeatedly kneed in the back; the seats at the Met, well-upholstered though they are, aren’t that solid!
There’s a page of info about the production here.