Magical Flute: McVicar's Zauberflöte returns to Covent Garden

By Matthew Rye, 05 November 2019

Loading, please wait...

See full listing

“British tenor Benjamin Hulett’s Tamino was fresh and lyrical”

Reviewed at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London on 4 November 2019

Mozart, Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)

The Royal Opera

Leo Hussain, Conductor

Sir David McVicar, Director

John Macfarlane, Set Designer, Costume Designer

Benjamin Hulett, Tamino

Elsa Dreisig, Pamina

Tuuli Takala, Queen of the Night

Vito Priante, Papageno

Andreas Bauer Kanabas, Sarastro

Kiandra Howarth, First Lady

Hongni Wu, Second Lady

Nadine Weissmann, Third Lady

Darren Jeffery, The Speaker (Der Sprecher)

Yaritza Véliz, Papagena

Rodell Rosel, Monostatos

Harry Nicoll, First Priest

Donald Maxwell, Second Priest

Andrés Presno, First Armoured Man

Julian Close, Second Armoured Man

Paule Constable, Lighting Designer

Royal Opera Chorus

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden

The Turn of the Screw at RBO Linbury: Darkness and denial

Eleanor Knight, 26th March

Natalie Abrahami’s mesmerising new production of Britten’s ghostly tale of sexual abuse is very dark indeed.

*****

A riveting Rigoletto revival at the Royal Opera House

Dominic Lowe, 25th March

Sir Mark Elder celebrates 50 years at Covent Garden by returning to his first opera there in 1976 – Verdi's Rigoletto – in a revival of Oliver Mears' excellent 2021 production.

****1

Siegfried at the RBO: Kosky and Pappano surprise and delight

David Karlin, 17th March

A revelatory orchestral performance and a cast led by Andreas Schager, Christopher Maltman and Elisabeth Strid make this a Siegfried for the record books.

*****

Terfel’s craggy Boris Godunov returns to Covent Garden

Mark Pullinger, 29th January

The second revival of Richard Jones' staging of Mussorgsky's original 1869 version of Boris Godunov once again stars the Welsh knight.

****1

Ermonela Jaho returns in triumph to The Royal Opera’s Traviata

Mark Valencia, 8th January

Richard Eyre’s 32-year-old production is rarely out of The Royal Opera’s repertoire for more than a few months at a time, but this particular revival proves very special.

*****

Turandot drowned in an orchestral tsunami at The Royal Opera

David Karlin, 15th December

Andrei Șerban’s 40 year old take on Puccini's tale of the ice princess largely stands the test of time, but Netrebko and Eyvazov are short of their best form.

***11

More reviews...

Matthew Rye

Matthew read music at Oxford and worked in music journalism for 30 years as a writer, critic and editor. He wrote numerous programme and CD booklet notes, spent 13 years as a Daily Telegraph critic, worked at BBC Music Magazine and was reviews editor of The Strad. He also wrote for The Wagner Journal and Opera and blogged at ferneklang.blogspot.co.uk. He was general editor of 1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die (Cassell Illustrated, 2007) and was the author of a new series of eBooks, Masterpieces of Music (Erudition).