Royal Academy Opera stages a magical Zauberflöte

Binny Supin Yang (Queen of the Night)

Daniel Vening (Sarastro)

Conrad Chatterton (Papageno)

Zahid Siddiqui (Tamino) and Grace Hope-Gill (Pamina)

By Mark Valencia, 19 March 2025

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“every note was a jewel, every giddy peak of her coloratura a glittering diamond”

Reviewed at Royal Academy of Music: Susie Sainsbury Theatre, London on 18 March 2025

Mozart, Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)

Royal Academy Opera

Olivia Clarke, Conductor

Jamie Manton, Director

Justin Nardella, Set Designer, Costume Designer

Charlie Morgan Jones, Lighting Designer

Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra

Zahid Siddiqui, Tamino

Conrad Chatterton, Papageno

Grace Hope-Gill, Pamina

Binny Supin Yang, Queen of the Night

Daniel Vening, Sarastro

Erin O'Rourke, First Lady

Charlotte Clapperton, Second Lady

Anna-Helena Maclachlan, Third Lady

Llinos Haf Jones, Papagena

Owen Lucas, First Armoured Man, Monostatos

Theodore McAlindon, Second Armoured Man, The Speaker (Der Sprecher)

Hailey West, First Boy

Anna Lluna, Second Boy

Núria Prats Illanas, Third Boy

George Reynolds, First Priest

The Royal Academy's Carmen has too many what-if moments

Dominic Lowe, 18th November

Presenting a work like Carmen is a punchy move by a conservatoire. The Royal Academy of Music's production has conceptual weaknesses, but features some good singing.

***11

A dystopian Hansel und Gretel at the RAM

Mark Valencia, 20th November

Jack Furness serves up an unappetising mess of Humperdinck's delicious masterpiece for Royal Academy Opera.

***11

Keeping it surreal: Martinů double-bill at the Royal Academy of Music

Dominic Lowe, 8th May

With typical spirit, the students at the Royal Academy of Music did an excellent job in bringing Martinů’s Comedy on the Bridge and Alexandre bis to life – two lesser-known pre-war surrealist gems.

***11

Unreal city: The Rake's Progress at the Royal Academy of Music

Benjamin Poore, 22nd November

Frederic Wake-Walker's realisation of the Hogarth-inspired opera is visually bracing and assuredly sung.

****1

Emotion and mayhem: a golden double bill from Royal Academy Opera

Stephen Pritchard, 18th March

Students triumph in Tchaikovsky's Iolanta and Ravel's L'Enfant et les sortilèges.

****1

By Jove! A terrific Semele at the Royal Academy of Music

Matthew Rye, 14th November

Royal Academy Opera maintains its usual high standards in a production of Handel’s operatic oratorio, a showcase for the singers of the future.

****1

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Mark Valencia

Mark has worked in arts journalism for four decades, both as a writer and as a French-English translator. Nowadays he focuses his energies on reviewing opera and music. Mark also writes for Opera magazine and for Musical America as a correspondent for Europe and the UK.