Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute” is year after year a favourite among the public in many opera houses. I am a bit fed up with it unless there is an exceptionally good soloist singing or there is something else special in the production. The exception to my uninterest is the production of Berlin’s Komische Oper, which was first seen on the stage of the Finnish National Opera in the spring of 2016. I have now seen it three times and I continue to admire the production.
If somebody has somehow managed to miss the story of “The
Magic Flute”, it is in short the following: Tamino falls in love with Pamina, whose
mother (the Queen of the Night) tries to win over Sarastro. The young couple
has to meet all kind of challenges, but in the end they get each other. The
Queen of the Night loses the battle and in the side story Papageno and Papagena
get each other, too.
This production of Komische Oper is created in the style of
silent movies, which means that recitatives have been left out and instead of
them speech bubbles are used. In addition to that there are drawings and comic
book style in the opera. It is a bit difficult to describe the production, so
it is best to see it. I enjoy tremendously the insightful drawings and the
texts and the whole visuality of the production – easy to guess, of course,
since I have seen it three times now.
The role of Tamino was sung by Tuomas Katajala – once again
superbly. To me the second important role is that of the Queen of the Night,
from whom I expect a strong and agile voice. This time the role was sung by Anu
Komsi and it sure was an interesting performance. Komsi’s voice is not very
strong, so in principle I should have been disappointed, but her interpretation
was stunning. She managed to fill her voice with such diabolical tones that it
couldn’t be beaten, and I absolutely loved her performance.
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