Maxim Emelyanychev – conducting Mozart’s The Magic Flute for the first time and making his debut with the Royal Opera House orchestra – writes in a programme note that he wants to feed off the energy of the audience. But on the first night of this revival of David McVicar’s production, now in its 20th year, I wanted more of that mercurial spark of inspiration.
Not that there isn’t much to admire in the individual performances: Gyula Orendt’s Papageno is the heart of this production, turning his journey towards earthly fulfilment with Sarah Dufresne’s Papagena into the most convincing development of character and comedy in the show; Anna Prohaska’s Pamina is full of adult anguish and subtlety, especially in her act two lament, while Aigul Khismatullina’s Queen of the Night is preternaturally precise in her glass-shattering rage, and Filipe Manu’s Tamino is a solidly stentorian model of well-sung princeliness.
