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| Georg Zeppenfeld as Sarastro was the outstanding singer in this production, but one wonders whether he felt comfortable in his outfit. |
"Sarastro’s kingdom is shown as a grotesque fairy-tale scientific state that suppresses the female element and intends to replace natural procreation by artificial reproduction."
Jens-Daniel Herzog
Stage director for The Magic Flute in the Salzburg Festival 2012
Not so long ago almost all stage directors, who wanted to be seen as "progressive", chose to "reinvent" old operas by making them happen in a modern or contemporary setting, contrary to what the original librettists and composers had in mind. Many of the directors were particularly fond of creating types dressed in military - often Nazi - uniforms.
Just when one thought that the worst of this "modernizing" craze was over, the new artistic directors of the Salzburg festivals - Cecilia Bartoli (The Whitsun Festival) and Alexander Pereira - seem to have had a serious relapse of "modernitis".
Bartoli´s first production, Händel´s Giulio Cesare in Egitto (Julius Caesar in Egypt) was an opera to listen to, not to watch. The same could be said about the Pereira era´s first production, Mozart´s The Magic Flute, with Jens-Daniel Herzog as stage director.
The Magic Flute was shown on the Franco-German television channel Arte on Monday night. A look at two pictures shown here should convince most opera lovers that the broadcast was most enjoyble as a radio programme. So do not bother to buy the video!
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| Monostatos as a photographer. |
PS
Conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt and his Concentus Musicus Wien, playing on period instruments, were excellent.
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