Die Zauberflöte

James Levine, Conductor

Luciano Pavarotti, Frederica von Stade, Ileana Cotrubas, Hildegarde Behrens
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Librettist: Gianbattista Varesco

This is a wonderful video if you're willing to invest a little effort in watching it. A lot of people consider Idomeneo to be the best opera seria ever written. I'm not familiar with much opera seria myself but I'd be surprised if there was anything out there that could surpass this. Granted, it's not exactly a fast-paced sort of opera, more of the "now I'll sing for ten minutes about how I feel" sort of thing, so it drags a bit at times, but when it's good - oh boy, then it's good!

I reccomend putting this on and watching it while doing something else that doesn't require too much mental effort - picking up that light novel you meant to get to (Wodehouse works well here), doing some mindless paperwork, working on a jigsaw puzzle, something like that. That way, when the action slows down you can focus on something else and still listen to the lovely music. Then when it picks up again you can lay down the book or the puzzle and watch.

Pavarotti puts in a splendid performance in the title role, giving us an anguished and sympathetic king. His interactions with Idamante are quite touching, and he handles the difficult vocal stuff with amazing ease. (Well, he is Pavarotti!) I found myself feeling awfully bad for him, even though it was technically his fault for making such a stupid vow in the first place! He definitely deserves the huge round of applause he gets at his curtain call, and then some.

Frederica von Stade is a simply stunning Idamante. Her beautiful voice is well-suited to this sort of music (and I'm beginning to think, any sort of music!). I was also struck by her acting ability. It was never difficult to accept her as a male character, albeit one with an unusually high, flutey voice for his age. The result was a young, idealistic, and very pure Idamante, exactly what is needed for this character to succeed.

Ileana Cotrubas is a lovely Ilia. Her arias are simply exquisite, and I was repeatedly moved by the obvious internal conflict she was suffering. And what in another opera might have been slightly excessive wringing of hands and clasping them to her throat, etc. etc., was perfectly OK here. There isn't much else to watch anyway during the arias, she might as well move around a bit.

Besides, she looked quite reserved next to the Electra of Hildegarde Behrens. Behrens definitely went all out as far as clasping of hands and such goes. But again, it was OK. First of all there wasn't much else to watch, as I said. Second, Electra is a bit loopy so it all fits in, leading nicely to her mad scene at the end. And wow, can she sing or what? Fantastic, particularly the mad scene.

Special mention to John Alexander as Arbace, who gets two beautiful arias that are unfortunately rather lengthy. (In fact, once I took a nap during his first aria and woke up in time for the end of it.) Quite good characterization here - the faithful servant of the king, praying earnestly that everything comes out right in the end. A solid singer, too.

Wonderful chorus, wonderful WONDERFUL staging by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, and Levine at the podium drawing the beauty from the music like the artist he is.

Idomeneo is not going to grab your attention and hold it for all three hours of its length, but if you pop it in on a lazy afternoon and allow your mind to wander when it wants to, I think you'll find that you really enjoy it! I certainly do.

Originally Reviewed:

19-Oct-03