[Met Performance] CID:333132



Die Zauberfl?te
Metropolitan Opera House, Mon, November 6, 2000

Debut : Sebastian Weigle, Angela Maria Blasi, Zachary Bernhard, Luca Mannarino, Edward Crafts, Gregory Keller




Die Zauberfl?te (333)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Emanuel Schikaneder
Pamina
Angela Maria Blasi [Debut]

Tamino
Michael Schade

Queen of the Night
Mary Dunleavy

Sarastro
Jan-Hendrik Rootering

Papageno
Gerald Finley

Papagena
Danielle de Niese

Monostatos
Dennis Petersen

Speaker
John Cheek

First Lady
Emily Pulley

Second Lady
Jane Bunnell

Third Lady
Jane Shaulis

Genie
James Danner

Genie
Zachary Bernhard [Debut]

Genie
Luca Mannarino [Debut]

Priest
Edward Crafts [Debut]

Priest
Bernard Fitch

Guard
Anthony Dean Griffey

Guard
Richard Vernon

Slave
Garth Dawson

Slave
David Frye

Slave
Roger Crouthamel


Conductor
Sebastian Weigle [Debut]


Production
John Cox

Designer
David Hockney

Lighting Designer
Gil Wechsler

Stage Director
Gregory Keller [Debut]





Die Zauberfl?te received ten performances this season.

FUNDING:
Revival a gift of the Edith C. Blum Foundation

Review 1:

David Shengold in LGNY online

Mozart's genius in ?Die Zauberfl?te? proved irresistible even in the faded David Hackney sets, which bear little relation to the production now enacted in front of them and might well be junked, though (with one exception) the costumes remain excellent. Sebastian Weigle took the overture's first quick tempo as a blurred bid in the "If I go REALLY fast I'll catch up to Daniel Harding" sweepstakes, and rarely communicated intelligible ideas thereafter. Conductorly ?hair? should not be enough for a gig like this; the score and players deserve better.

Angela Maria Blasi, mercifully replacing the originally scheduled Sylvia McNair, took the evening's honors with a ravishingly sung, engagingly acted Pamina. The Europe-based American soprano commands that increasingly rare commodity, a recognizable personal timbre, and deployed her bright-hued voice with style and great skill, offering both dynamic and emotional shading to the sometimes wanly drawn princess. Her touching "Ach, ich fuehl's" bespoke a very fine artist. Mary Dunleavy, enjoyably campy in the Queen's superb black-and-silver costumes, proved considerably better than average in the fearsome arias, even if the five killer high Fs were rather squeaked out. The clumsy staging, weighed down by endless dialog (typical of the artistic director's enduring Germanic bias that ?Zauberfl?te? and ?Siegfried? are given virtually complete, while ?Giulio Cesare? and ?Semiramide? are heavily cut) was rife with misfires, leaving the audience applauding a gyrating mound after "O zittre nicht."

Gerald Finley sang Papageno richly and accurately. In purely vocal terms, the Canadian bass-baritone may be the Met's finest bird catcher since the late Donald Gramm, and he certainly feels at home on the stage. Nice as it was not to see the usual Young-Artist-as-Lifeguard Papageno, Finley's hyperactive mugging wore out its welcome within minutes. Michael Schade's stiff, chipmunk-visaged Tamino was defeated by the one true disaster among Hockney's costumes: green tunic, scarlet cloak, gold belt, pink tights, and brown boots. While he is an informed Mozart stylist and turned a few pleasingly heady phrases in soft passages, the timbre at full tilt lacked tonal appeal and cost Schade a visible effort to produce. The Met's resources for Mozart tenors have grown perilously slim, with over-promoted tenorinos assuming leading parts. The fine voice of Anthony Dean Griffey, here the First Armed Man, would suit Tamino (not so long ago the province of Gedda and Alexander, and once fair terrain for the huge-voiced Slezak) splendidly. May one ask, when Paul Groves opens the season as Ottavio: can't the company lure Stanford Olsen back? Help may be on the way: Gregory Turay spells the anodyne Groves for one Ferrando in the very appealing March 10 ?Cosi,? also involving Theodora Hanslowe and Christopher Schaldenbrand ? a Despo date in the best possible sense.

Jan-Hendrik Rootering, the German wing's answer to Dimitri Kavrakos, offered nasal timbre and short measure on the lowest notes in a passable, uninvolved and uninvolving performance of Sarastro ? exactly the same one he brought to Wagner's Daland two days later, in fact. Dennis Petersen chiefly annoyed as Monostatos, with bad German and poor timing ? reacting with "comic" horror before Sarastro announced his punishment, for example. Otherwise, the First Boy of James Danner was quite outstandingly good (a future Miles?) and two of the all-important Ladies (the Queen's fabulous back-up singers) sang and acted up a storm (Emily Pulley and Jane Bunnell) even if the third (the Inexplicable One, Jane Shaulis) let down the side vocally, dramatically and linguistically. Impressive-voiced Jill Grove, a touch young for Mary in Holl?nder, would have completed the trio superbly.



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