gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONESEPTEMBER 2019109OPERA REVIEWSnamebeforethepublic.Theyounger
composertookbothmusicalanddramatic
hintsfromHansHeiling,repayingthem
withtheinterestofstrengtheningwhat
hehad‘stolen’bothmelodicallyand
dramaturgically.Listentothescenein
Act 2 whereHeiling’sgood-at-heart
mothertheQueenoftheEarthSpirits
warnsAnnaoffherspiritofasonandyou
willhearwhatsoundslikeadraftofthe
TodesverkündigungfromDieWalküre
20 yearsdowntheroad.And,likeWagner’s
Dutchman,Heilingoffersjewelstotempt
hiswould-bebride.
Thepresentrecordingisdrawnlive
fromthestageofEssen’sopera.Itgrieves
metosaythatitisveryuneveninquality.
JeffreyDowdwillnotbethefirsttenor
occasionallytobeconfoundedbythe
mercilesstessituraofKonrad,Marschner’s
Erik.Tuningalsosometimesaffectshis
Anna.TheEssenversionperformsthe
dialogue,andwiththe‘right’peopledoing
itinthe‘right’places,but,althoughsimilar
insubjectandcontent,itisnotatallthe
dialogueofferedinmyUniversalEdition
vocalscore‘revisedandcompletedafter
theoriginal’byWilhelmKienzl.But
theonlycutIcanseecomesintheDer
Freischütz-likeweddingpreparationsin
Act3,oneofthepassageswhereMarschner
setsasidehismoreepictemplateandlets
hisscoringintriguinglyrecreateBohemian
folkanddancemusic.Ifyouenjoythe
atmosphereinthosehorror-filmvillage
scenessetnearawickedCount’scastle
whereallareafraidtospeaktostrangers,
youwillwarmtotheunsubtlefunthat
Marschner/DevrienthavewithKonrad’s
friendsStephanandNiklas.
Ifyouwantthisoperainexpensivelyon
newCDs,asofnowthisisyouruniquebut
notwhollybrilliantchoice.The 2005
DynamicDVD–ifyoucanstillfindit–
hasastrongercast.MikeAshman
Selectedcomparison:
Palumbo(12/05)(DYNA)◊ 33467
Mozart ◊Y
DieZauber löte
MauroPeterten............................................................Tamino
ChristianeKargsop....................................................Pamina
AlbinaShagimuratovasop...........QueenoftheNight
AdamPlachetkabass-bar..................................Papageno
MariaNazarovasop.............................................Papagena
MatthiasGoernebar................................................Sarastro
TareqNazmibass.......................................................Speaker
MichaelPorterten............................................Monostatos
MembersoftheViennaBoys’Choir;ViennaState
OperaChorus;ViennaPhilharmonicOrchestra/
ConstantinosCarydis
StagedirectorLydiaSteier
VideodirectorMichaelBeyer
C MajorEntertainmentF◊749708;
FY 749804 (144’• NTSC• 16:9• 1080i•
DTS HDMA5.0,DTS5.0&PCMstereo• 0• s)
RecordedliveattheGrossesFestspielhaus,
Salzburg,August 2018This production from last
year’s Salzburg Festival
has much charm but it is
fundamentally so wrong-
headed that I hardly know where to start.
Perhaps influenced by Adrian Noble’s
Hänsel und Gretel (EuroArts, 2/17), which
was set in a Victorian nursery, Lydia Steier
places the action in a middle-class
household in Vienna before the First
World War. During the Overture the
family is at table, while tradesmen deliver
goods downstairs. Father reads something
disturbing in his newspaper – the
assassination of Franz Ferdinand? – and
rushes out. Mother has a tantrum. Only
Grandfather remains calm, and after the
children have said their bedtime prayers he
begins to read them the story of the Magic
Flute, chapter by chapter. The children
become the Three Boys of the opera, the
maids are the Three Ladies; Mother is the
Queen of the Night, the butcher’s boy isPapageno and the boy delivering the coal
is Monostatos.
Most of Schikaneder’s dialogue is
replaced by the Grandfather’s narration,
engagingly read by Klaus Maria Brandauer,
who sometimes – not too often – speaks
over the music. The boys participate in the
action, of course, when not listening to the
story. Tamino is dressed as a wooden toy
soldier, with apple-red cheeks. The Queen,
mysteriously, is in bridal white. The temple
is peopled by grotesques: acrobats, jugglers,
men on stilts. Pamina is a doll in a rah-rah
skirt. Sarastro, in topper and striped
trousers, is described as a magician but
could be the Animal Trainer from Berg’s
Lulu. And when the Speaker emerges for
the beginning of Tamino’s journey towards
enlightenment we see a grinning jackanapes
chomping on a cigar.
That is enough to make you grit your
teeth, though I suppose some might find
it entertaining. It’s the end that really
takes the biscuit. The final trial, by fire
and water, consists of Tamino and Pamina
watching footage of First World War
carnage, after which Monostatos and the
Three Ladies are shot on the orders of
Sarastro; the Queen too, perhaps, but the
camera cuts away at the crucial moment.
You can forget the opera’s crucial message
of the triumph of light over darkness.
Not surprisingly, the three boys are
deeply distressed.
There hardly seems any point in
commenting on the singing and playing.
Constantinos Carydis pulls the tempos
around: often too fast and too finicky, but
the Vienna Philharmonic are with him all
the way. It’s ironic that despite using the
New Mozart Edition he adds piano,
harpsichord and organ. One of his best
moments is the pause before the aching
postlude to Christiane Karg’s beautiful
‘Ach, ich fühl’s’. For a baritone, Matthias
Goerne copes better than you might expect
with Sarastro’s bottom notes. The threeegwu
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