An Armchair for the Orchestra – The Parisian theater reviews site » The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, directed by Robert Carsen at the Opéra Bastille

© Ghergana Damianova

ƒƒ article of Sylvie Boursier

Papagena, Papageno, Pamina, Tamino, Sarastro, Monostatos, the book of the Magic flute looks like a Tim Burton comic book with a toxic queen of the night, woolly veils, a reptilian gnome and a luciferian Quasimodo, long live Halloween!

It is the story of Tamino, a young prince from elsewhere, who, at the injunctions of the Queen of the Night, ventures into the kingdom of Sarastro and faces terrible trials for the love of Pamina. It is also the story of Papageno, a mischievous fowler, only aspiring to eat, drink and… find his Papagena! Initiatory story, night of the living dead and commedia dell arte buffa the Magic Flute is a mystery that we will never finish understanding. The most innovative ideas of the Enlightenment rub shoulders with hilarious vaudeville.

Robert Carsen's staging favors the metaphysical part of the work more than its waking dream enchantment over intuitive poetry. From a beaten earth of coffins emerge the protagonists with dark forests as a backdrop, thanks to a remarkable work on light. The actors lose themselves in a sort of no mans land, lit by a murky light, a metaphor perhaps for our condition as simple mortals, wandering over the bones of the dead that we will soon join. The three ladies veiled in black in the image of their queen are undifferentiated. They have a crush on Tamino and humanize the opening of this shadow theater with their almost touching funny side. Soprano Aleksandra Olczyk plays a perfectly balanced high-pitched queen and Pavol Breslik plays a charming Tamino emerging from a jet set party with his immaculate white suit. Despite the accuracy of the voices and the subtlety of the direction of the actors, the first part seems long with the only change being the colors of a forest with the four seasons.

Then the refined aesthetic offers striking images such as Papageno's “kiss of death” to a living dead bride (extraordinary composition and makeup by Ilanah Lobel-Torres) like the dances of death of the Middle Ages. Tamino and Papageno descend underground with the shadows of immense ladders, only lit by the gaping tombs. To live is to learn to die, such is the secret of initiation according to Robert Carsen and the price to pay to access a truth that is relative because it is human.

Jean Teitgen's bass as Sarastro works wonders with a contained amplitude (Mozart is not Verdi!) which delights us, we are suspended on his lips. Mathias Vidal is striking in Monostratos, a mixture of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and M the Accursed, a very beautiful composition indeed. But the master of the place is indeed the indescribable Papageno, Mikhail Timoshenko, who we feel at home in Bastille. The powerful baritone embodies the vibrant bird catcher without caricature with great humor and tenderness, the audience is with him.

Our ears are in heaven, we could even close our eyes as Robert Carsen's magic lantern projects an interior visual that is more than solar. After all, aren’t the central characters of this mysterious opera music and singing? The alliance between the two is perfect, clever and simple, so melodic that it is impossible to leave the room without keeping the most joyful tunes in mind for a long time. Chef Oksana Lyniv is also widely applauded. We hear the terror of the Queen of the Night, the emotions of Pamina, the clowning of Papageno, the grandeur of Prince Sarastro and the awakening to the wisdom of Prince Tamino. Three months later, Mozart would bow out and play 'an unparalleled musical subtlety, perfectly summed up by the newly initiated couple ” we walk by the magic of music, joyful through the darkness ».

© Ghergana Damianova

The Magic Flute, music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Lived by: Emanuel Schilkaneder

Director: Robert Carsen

Musical Direction : Oksana Lyniv

Chef de Chœur: Alessandro di Stefano

Set design: Michael Levine
Costumes : Petra Reinhardt
Lights: Robert Carsen and Peter Van Praet

Avec: Jean Teitgen, Pavol Breslik, Nicolas Cavallier, Niall Anderson,Nicholas Jones, Aleksandra Olczyk, Nikola Hillebrand, Margarita Polonskaya, Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur, Claudia Huckle, Mikhail Timoshenko, Ilanah Lobel-Torres, Mathias Vidal and alternate Fabian Bellon, Anton Kuhnle, Erwin Li, Simon Engel, Christian Müller, Philipp Rahn

Orchestra and Choirs of the Paris National Opera
November 5,7,9,12,15,17,19,21 and 23, 2024 at 7:30 p.m.

Duration: 3h05 with intermission

Bastille Opera

Bastille Square

75012 Paris

Reservation: www.operadeparis.fr