Filipe Manu / Рецензии

David McVicar’s production of ‘Die Zauberflöte’ is filled with nocturnal high-jinks

Classic production by David McVicar of Mozart's last opera returns to Covent Garden with a new cast and a star turn

This production is by the Royal Opera’s Jette Parker Young Artists, a programme that supports the development of young professional artists. It’s directed by Noa Naamat and Edmund Whitehead conducts the Southbank Sinfonia. The performance opens on a dimly lit stage. The set is minimal – just two curved staircases and a rotating platform. We’re confronted with the dying Minotaur and a four-strong chorus setting the scene. The Minotaur maintains a brooding, malevolent presence throughout. Chinese mezzo-soprano Hongni Wu is excellent as Phaedra. Her darkly sensual voice is perfect for the role and her fine acting conveys the character’s rage and desire for revenge. She dominates whenever she is on stage. Wu brings power and agency to the role. Phaedra may be a pawn in Aphrodite’s scheming, but she’s no victim. This contrasts with New Zealand tenor Filipe Manu’s Hippolyt, who is touchingly innocent and somewhat at the mercy of the three women in his life. American countertenor Patrick Terry adds a welcome light touch of humour to his Artemis in Act Two’s resurrection scene.

Complementing this score, both rich and compact, is the showtime set by takis and simply glamorous costumes, sapphire blue in the first half, fiery orange in the aftermath. In the title role, as the woman taken over by an obsessive and destructive infatuation with her stepson Hippolytus is the vocally and physically agile Chinese-born mezzo- soprano Hongni Wu. The New Zealander-Tongan tenor Filipe Manu as the object of her unfortunate desires is already impressive, The Southbank Sinfonia is one of London's niftiest orchestras, and a perfect fit for this sometimes jazzy, sometimes filmic, always kaleidoscopic score, conductor Edmund Whitehead impressively spinning all these plates at once. Jette Parker Young Artist Noa Naamat has that rare quality among opera directors today: she knows that less is more, and never meddles when the music, libretto, lighting designer (Lee Curran) and artists are getting on with their job. That restraint bodes very well for the flourishing of other works on her watch. Lots to look forward to from the Jette Parker alumni, in short. Catch this remarkable work, and you will see what I mean.