Die Zauberflöte at Glyndebourne: a mixed bag of paper cut-outs

By Mark Valencia, 19 July 2019

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“it is baritone Björn Bürger who steals the show from under everybody else’s noses”

Reviewed at Glyndebourne Opera House, Glyndebourne on 18 July 2019

Mozart, Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)

Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Ryan Wigglesworth, Conductor

Renaud Doucet, Director

André Barbe, Set Designer

David Portillo, Tamino

Sofia Fomina, Pamina

Brindley Sherratt, Sarastro

Caroline Wettergreen, Queen of the Night

Björn Bürger, Papageno

Esther Dierkes, First Lady

Marta Fontanals-Simmons, Second Lady

Katharina Magiera, Third Lady

Jörg Schneider, Monostatos

Michael Kraus, The Speaker (Der Sprecher)

Guy Simard, Lighting Designer

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

The Glyndebourne Chorus

Glyndebourne revives Michieletto’s Kátya Kabanová

Mark Valencia, 3rd August

Damiano Michieletto’s production of Janáček’s opera breaks a key tenet of high-concept opera: where it should reveal, it obfuscates.

***11

All the world’s a jest: Falstaff returns to Glyndebourne

Mark Pullinger, 23rd July

Richard Jones' 2009 production returns to Glyndebourne after a long absence, but the 1940s comedy scrubs up fresh.

***11

A strong new Figaro opens at Glyndebourne

Dominic Lowe, 29th June

Mariame Clément is a popular director at Glyndebourne, and her new production of Figaro shows her trademark approach to hardhitting comedy.

****1

Glyndebourne's Saul still packs a punch 10 years on

Nick Boston, 8th June

Returning from the original run, Christopher Purves and Iestyn Davies were joined by a strong cast and chorus for a revival of Barrie Kosky's striking production.

*****

Unhurried suspense in a very English Parsifal

Peter Quantrill, 17th May

Compelling singers carry the day in the Glyndebourne Festival Opera's first staging of Wagner’s swansong.

****1

Glyndebourne’s season opens with Rossini’s Barber of Seville

David Karlin, 16th May

Annabel Arden’s production provides joyous comedy, with vocal and orchestral performances of the very finest.

*****

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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.