Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
A night at the opera. Having listened to the Queen album a good number of times, I came to OperaSoc’s performance of The Magic Flute with quite high expectations (and for the sheer length of it, with a good amount of food supplies). However, I need not have bothered - the mix of drama and comedy of Mozart’s opera kept me well-occupied, so much so, that even in the break I was too busy chatting about the play itself to be bothered with such simple needs as food.
In general, it was an incredible performance; it was clearly well-rehearsed and the harmonies amongst the singers and the interaction with the band leaves little to be criticized. That some singers’ voices were more polished than others’ is probably unavoidable when doing an opera composed of students, but the overall standard of the performance was so high that this did not actually matter much.
Now for how the context of the opera was realized… Just from looking at the flyer, it was clear that this would be a modern version of the 18th century opera; basically an interesting concept, however - quite challenging. This version takes up on the Masonic elements of the opera and transforms it into an opera concerned with the idea of classism: “Sarastro and his circle are now rich, well-connected people who attend charity balls and mix with royalty, whereas the Queen and her Ladies are from a much lower class, living in a bad area, mixing with drug addicts and prostitutes”, the flyer tells us. The original opera is not solely about these Masonic elements, but is mainly concerned with the education of mankind, in order to make “the Earth a heavenly kingdom, and mortals like the gods”. It seems rather awkward to represent those who are supposed to bring this heavenly change as the upper class of society in the opera. Whilst everyone seemingly reaches their happy ending (their “heavenly kingdom”), classism is actually praised rather than criticized. But doesn’t classism still have a ring of discrimination and unfairness? I find it problematic to represent attaining the best social position as equivalent to the enlightenment that was the ultimate goal in the original opera.
But that is only a question of interpretation. OperaSoc choose to focus on the Masonic aspect of the opera and that certainly worked for them, as they managed to produce a wonderful and stunning performance.
'But doesn’t classism still have a ring of discrimination and unfairness?' Of course it does, but was the opera not rather a parody on the idea that the rotary club and such organisations are the force of good in the world. Sarastro and his gang are not necessarily the good guys, even if Mozart and Schikaneder originally intended otherwise. For example, I remember one performance in which Sarastro's minions were dressed as SS officers.
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