SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL OPERA REVIEW

Mozart, The Magic Flute: Soloists, Orchestra. Conductor: Tania Morandini, Teatro Avenida, Buenos Aires. 20.3.2010. (JSJ)

 

Director/lighting: Eduardo Casullo

Costumes: Mariela Daga

Chorus: Ezequiel Fautario

Cast:

Tamino: Carlos Ullán

Pamina: Graciela Oddone

Papageno: Luciano Garay

Papagena: Cecilia Vicchi / Andrea Lucero

Queen of the Night: Luz del Alba Rubio

Sarastro: Lucas Debevec Mayer

Speaker: Edgardo Zecca / Santiago Vinelli

Three Ladies: Claudia Montagna / Ayelén Mose, Trinidad Goyeneche, Laura Domínguez

Monostatos: Fabián Frías

Priests: Osvaldo Ledesma, Pablo Basualdo

Three Boys: Sol Crespo / Clara Pinto, Anahi Fernández Caballero, Javiera Paredes Krefft

Carlos Ullán (Tamino) and the serpent - Picture courtesy of Fundamús

Fundamús (Fundación para la música) has opened the 2010 opera season in Buenos Aires with a revival of its Magic Flute, which was first put on last June. With the majority of the cast identical, the production – broadly traditional, but for the use of photographic images as scenery, and of Spanish for the spoken dialogue – was of course very similar to the earlier one, if a bit more polished.

But there were some notable changes. This time round the musical direction was in the hands of the Italian maestra Tania Morandini, who conducted with precision and style, with the small orchestra sounding almost chamber-like. However, her tempi were generally on the slow side.

The Queen of the Night was sung by the Uruguayan soprano Luz del Alba Rubio, a role she has sung with success on various occasions over the past decade, according to the programme notes. And this production adds to this success, with her clarity and brilliance of tone in these demanding passages.

And last but not least was the Papagena of Cecilia Vicchi, albeit one of the smaller roles, but an important one nevertheless, and Vicchi took full advantage of its opportunities for personalisation. Alongside her, her Papageno, played by Luciano Garay, was almost too overdone, coming across as too worldly-wise, but vocally was excellent. Oddly his (non functional) magic “bells” sounded most un-bell-like!

Of the other cast,  Carlos Ullán as Tamino and Graciela Oddone as Pamina continued to excel, as did Lucas Debevec Mayer with his dignified Sarastro, and the other roles were mostly satisfactorily sung.

Jonathan Spencer Jones