The Metropolitan Opera HD Live Reviews

 In 2006, Julie Taymor directed this heavily truncated version of Mozart’s famous opera, and the taming of the material leaves the production slightly listless. Not only was a large chunk of material edited out, but also much of it was changed to be more “family friendly.” The Magic Flute feels more akin to a mammoth Disney super-production than the original, more aggressively strange work.

If nothing else, The Magic Flute is another visually audacious and beautiful production from Taymor. All of her hallmarks are here: puppetry, masks, ornate costuming, purposefully anachronistic sets, and rear-projection. The cumulative effect is a full-scale assault on the senses, and Taymor’s gifts for visualizing and imagining are best in a theatrical context. If any material can survive her roof-blowing antics then it’s an opera, something that already demands are certain largeness of scale and proportion.

The fanciful aspects of the production are emphasized here, and it does make for a certain briskness and entertaining value. However, this does leave The Magic Flute incoherent and with a general effect of too much spectacle in service of a thin story. I blame the edits that removed much of the sub-plots involving Pamina and the Three Boys. Given how sharp or atonal the actors playing the Three Boys are throughout, maybe it’s for the best their parts were dwindled down.

For the most part the actors play their roles quite well, with all of them but one singing their faces off to an impressive degree. Nathan Gunn steals the show here, throwing himself into his role with exuberance and joyous hammy theatrics that play well in the opera house, your mileage may very since the camera is more intimate. But the lead role as played by Matthew Polenzani is problematic at best. He sings perfectly well, but he seems lost amid all of the spectacle and awkward in projecting for the stage.

Overall this is a solid production, handsome and lively, but it lacks a certain brio. There’s a chance you too will be befuddled by the hastiness we’re rocketed through the story with. The Magic Flute is another case of Taymor’s vision sacrificing narrative clarity or quiet moments. Her vision is laudable, but her inability to modulate is exhaustive.