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It’s Day’s night, and no one is going to spoil her story
A Sentimental Journey
Film
This is a shocking, replenishing film, not to be missed
Green Zone
Restaurants
It is great that Bruno Loubet is back — and at prices that are eminently fair
Bistro Bruno Loubet
The action and direction are superb and the acting good, but the plot is so pathetic it defies belief
Wonderful - beautifully acted and gloriously funny, particularly Simon Russell Beale and Fiona Shaw
Probably the most important photography exhibition london has ever seen
London,
Nick Kimberley's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Simon Callow.
Cast: Korn/Ferry Opera Holland Park, Jane Glover (cond), Tom Phillips (des), Andrew Staples (Tamino), Fflur Wyn (Pamina), Tim Mirfin (Sarastro), Penelope Randall-Davies (Queen Of The Night), Roland Wood (Papageno), Pippa Goss (Papagena), Stuart Kale (Monostatos), Stephen Gadd (Speaker), The City Of London Sinfonia
Description: Jane Glover takes the baton as Simon Callow directs Mozart's fairytale. With Andrew Staples as Tamino and Fflur Wyn as Pamina. Sung in English.
Trains: Tube: Holland Park, Kensington High Street 
Phone: 0845230 9769
Website: www.rbkc.gov.uk
Fine flautist: Andrew Staples has a wonderfully flexible voice
The Magic Flute may be an allegory of the triumph of enlightenment but Mozart knew very well that a good show needs action, so he added sundry villains and the doltish bird-catcher Papageno to liven things up.
The problem is that Papageno's earthy appetites seem far more attractive than the good guys' rather pallid philosophising. One day I hope to see a production that makes Sarastro and his band of initiates into something other than a cranky cult.
Simon Callow's new staging for Opera Holland Park doesn't manage it, and sometimes the direction resorts to routine opera house traffic control, but the story gets told plainly enough. On the other hand, there is nothing plain about the vivid abstraction of the sets, designed by Royal Academician Tom Phillips; economical but striking, they evoke the snakes-and-ladders traps that Tamino negotiates on his journey of selfdiscovery, while the costumes offer a witty melange of styles and eras to make the action as timeless as it needs to be. Jane Glover conducts a performance that is light on its feet, and unusually at Holland Park, the opera is sung in English. The gain in dramatic immediacy is palpable, the singers making the most of the opportunity to communicate directly.
No one does it better than Jonathan Gunthorpe, whose performance as Papageno has such flair that you'd never guess that he was drafted in at short notice. A natural comic, he's Tommy Cooper one minute, Eric Morecambe the next, but he also sings with genuine charm.
In comparison Andrew Staples is a rather stiff presence as Tamino but the voice has a wonderfully flexible lightness that for once makes you warm to the character.
If Fflur Wyn can't quite manage to put a face to Pamina, his winsome bride-to-be, she sings with appealing clarity, while Penelope Randall-Davis gets both venom and pinpoint accuracy into the character of the Queen of the Night. She's more than a match for Tim Mirfin's pleasantly voiced but somewhat under-characterised Sarastro. Once again the Devil has the best tunes.
Tonight and in rep until 12 July. Information: 0845 230 9769.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
