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An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Nick Kimberley's rating
Reader rating
Hissable villainess: Pauline Malefane as the Queen of the Night
There is a long history of operas being picked up, shaken about and turned into something else. The most famous example is probably Oscar Hammerstein's Carmen Jones, which made an all-black Broadway musical out of Bizet's Carmen.
Mark Dornford-May has done something similar to Mozart's The Magic Flute, which becomes a kind of multi-lingual South African township pantomime, complete with hissable villains, scary monsters and a sweet young couple who end up getting hitched.
Not that far from Mozart's original in other words, although where Mozart also intended a Masonic allegory, the metaphors here are rather more obscure. Is Sarastro, the wise man whose sect holds power, a Mandela-like figure? If so, does that make the Queen of the Night Winnie Mandela? Perhaps.
The staging's greatest coup is forgoing anything akin to Mozart's orchestra, while holding on to most of his tunes. Instead of strings and winds, we get a battery of marimbas and other African percussion, providing a delicate underlay that allows the singers space to shine.
Most of the principals are classically trained but not so much so that they have forgotten how to communicate. There is a real sense of urgency that transcends the occasional lack of vocal finesse.
The production was first seen before Christmas at the Young Vic and has now transferred to the West End. Perhaps it still needs a few performances to adapt to the rather more formal surroundings of the Duke of York's Theatre, which sometimes seem to hold the show's energy in check.
Within the bare bones of a set, the staging nevertheless moves very fast, with most of the cast singing, dancing and playing, sometimes all at once.
Conductor Mandisi Dyantyis (whose exuberant trumpetplaying stands in wonderfully for the flute itself) keep things flowing smoothly, even though there is no trace of a music stand to be seen: quite a feat of memory for the orchestra.
It's a show that is more about ensemble than solo brilliance, but Zamile Gantana's Papageno is larger than life in more ways than one, while Mhlekazi Andy Mosiea makes a touchingly vulnerable Tamino.
Things are at their best when furthest from Mozart: the Three Boys become a Motown girl group, all sassy cheek and comehither hips, while the all-singing, all-dancing choruses have no equivalent in the original, which will in future seem duller without them.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
This was a powerful and moving and fun production that completely re-energised Mozart's musically wonderful but rather out of date opera. Replacing the freemasonry with African mysticism made perfect sense. The dancing, costumes and acting were fine. But what astonished me was the orchestral sophistication, the vocal acuity and pure operatic quality of the un-miked singing, especially those playing Tamino, Papageno and the Queen of the Night, who made a good fist of her famously difficult and high arias.
The plot of Die Zauberflote has always been somewhat mystifying, but it seemed a lot more comprehensible after watching this fabulous new production, which would grace any London opera house and knocks the present plethora of West End musicals into a cocked hat. A great evening in the theatre, which has prompted me to get out my long neglected CD of the great Mozart original.
- Wesley Kerr, london
