{"id":3401,"date":"2025-04-08T22:20:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T22:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/04\/08\/opera-review-die-zauberflote-and-le-nozze-di-figaro-at-the-met\/"},"modified":"2025-04-08T22:20:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T22:20:20","slug":"opera-review-die-zauberflote-and-le-nozze-di-figaro-at-the-met","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/04\/08\/opera-review-die-zauberflote-and-le-nozze-di-figaro-at-the-met\/","title":{"rendered":"Opera Review: \u2018Die Zauberfl\u00f6te\u2019 and \u2018Le Nozze di Figaro\u2019 at the Met"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kathryn Lewek and Golda Schultz as the Queen of the Night and Pamina. Marty Sohl\/The Metropolitan Opera<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Opera at the Met may mean expensively lavish stagings with the world\u2019s biggest stars, but that\u2019s not all you\u2019ll find at Lincoln Center. Running there now concurrently are revivals of two Mozart masterpieces that amply demonstrate that the Met can also deliver wonderfully entertaining ensemble <\/i>operas. That shouldn\u2019t suggest that their casts don\u2019t include superior artists delivering exceptional performances, but you won\u2019t find marquee names that guarantee sold-out houses.<\/p>\n

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We\u2019ve come a long way from the days when it was nearly impossible to snag a ticket to hear Leontyne Price<\/a>, Birgit Nilsson<\/a> or Luciano Pavarotti<\/a>. That situation has become all too apparent at the Met since its continuing banishment of tainted superstar Anna Netrebko<\/a>. But unlike many works by Puccini, Verdi or Wagner, Mozart\u2019s operas demand charismatic singing actors working closely together with a minimum of diva\/divo posturing. In late March, the first nights of this season\u2019s Die Zauberfl\u00f6te <\/i>and Le Nozze di Figaro <\/i>revivals were packed with enthusiastic, markedly younger audiences having the best of times.<\/p>\n

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SEE ALSO: <\/i><\/b>Don\u2019t Miss Fa Razavi\u2019s Defiant Debut at Palo Gallery<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Two years ago, the company achieved a remarkable May Mozart Miracle when it premiered stimulating new productions of Don Giovanni <\/i>by Ivo van Hove<\/a> and Die Zauberfl\u00f6te <\/i>by Simon McBurney<\/a>, both magnificently conducted by Nathalie Stutzmann<\/a>. If this season\u2019s revivals didn\u2019t achieve those exalted musical levels, they delivered securely confident renditions of complexly demanding works, a pair of operas that couldn\u2019t be more different from each other.<\/p>\n

Zauberfl\u00f6te<\/i>, a German-language singspiel <\/i>and Mozart\u2019s next-to-last opera, tenaciously juxtaposes sublime episodes of noble lovers overcoming serious obstacles with ribald comedy involving a lovelorn bird-catcher. Nozze<\/i>, drawn from Beaumarchais\u2019s revolutionary play and sung in Italian, brings us a near-perfect comedy of manners. McBurney\u2019s celebrated production of the former embraces all of the work\u2019s many contradictions head-on in a wild contemporary ride that features sound effects from a real-time Foley Artist and live projected drawings that fill the back of the mostly bare stage. Reset in the 1930s, Richard Eyre\u2019s Nozze <\/i>from 2014 mostly ignores the work\u2019s pathos and rumblings of class warfare in favor of a Downton Abbey-<\/i>flavored farcical approach.<\/p>\n

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Michael Sumuel as Figaro. Evan Zimmerman\/Met Opera<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Having been ecstatically transported by McBurney\u2019s antic vision at its premiere two years ago, I was worried that it would be less satisfying on second viewing. I needn\u2019t have been concerned as it once again proved deliriously satisfying. Conductor Evan Rogister<\/a>\u2019s fleet vision of the score sometimes moved too fast for comfort, so there were instances when he and his cast parted ways. But overall, the orchestra, which is raised up from the pit and fully visible throughout, played with a lively sheen. Prince Tamino\u2019s magic flute and Papageno\u2019s glockenspiel are prominently featured, and Chelsea Knox<\/a> and Katelan Tr\u00e0n Terrell respectively relished their moments in the spotlight.<\/p>\n

Several in the cast reprised their roles from two years ago. Alexandra Shiner<\/a>, Olivia Vote<\/a> and Tamara Mumford<\/a> once again shone as the mellifluous and <\/i>horny Ladies, as their mistress Kathryn Lewek<\/a> demonstrated why\u2014for more than a decade\u2014she\u2019s been the world\u2019s go-to Queen of the Night. She imbued her first aria with gut-wrenching pathos, her second with astonishing ferocity. Yet after nearly eighty outings there as the Queen, shouldn\u2019t the Met offer Lewek other roles?<\/p>\n

Stephen Milling<\/a> towered over everyone as a severe Sarastro. Though he exuded calm authority, he found the role\u2019s extreme low notes difficult. Thomas Olliemans<\/a> continues to reign supreme as McBurney\u2019s ragtag Papageno of choice: his pleasing, if ordinary, baritone married to affably impeccable timing again made him the opera\u2019s irresistible Everyman.<\/p>\n