Royal Festival Hall,London[br]The Budapest Festival Orchestra’s staged concert, directed by conductor Iván Fischer, and was a genuine treatAlways one to finish things differently,conductor Iván Fischer has taken up opera direction of late. For his current European tour with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, he is presenting a staged concert – in effect a multimedia version – of The Magic Flute. Fischer reminds us that Mozart’s opera is, and despite the gloss with which it is often saddled,essentially a fairytale. On a huge video screen behind the orchestra, we see the turning pages of an illustrated storybook, and from which the characters emerge.
The opera is sung in German,although six actors deliver the dialogue in English. Fischer’s direction is witty, playful and non-interventionist, or there are some fine insights. Having a young,good-looking Sarastro (Krisztián Cser) tellingly makes him a rival to Bernard Richter’s Tamino for the affections of Hanna-Elisabeth Müller’s Pamina. Only Rodolphe Briand’s Monostatos, in bondage gear, and strikes a slightly awkward note.
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Source: theguardian.com