Reviews today looks at Lyric Opera/Sheil at the NCH and Sextets in the City at the Hugh Lane Gallery
Lyric Opera/Sheil
NCH, Dublin
Mozart The Magic Flute
Opera Ireland's last production of Mozart's Magic Flute, directed by Achim Freyer in 2005, was imbued with circus images. Lyric Opera's new production, directed by Vivian Coates and seen in the first of two performances at the National Concert Hall on Saturday, is closer to pantomime.
Coates's production is not strong on narrative. Although it's sung in English, key phrases don't always come across clearly, and the story is almost treated as much as a sequence of stage pictures as a matter of interaction between the characters.
The minimalist setting consists of tall, leafless, white-painted shrubs in wheeled pots which are moved into various configurations, and a triangular arch which is similarly mobile, and only forms itself into a triangle at the very end.
Rodney Clarke's musically laid-back Papageno is got up with canary-yellow headgear and trimmings, and in one of the miracles of the evening, his discovery of Papagena (Deirdre Masterson) results in six duckling-cute children, whose delightful cavortings drew sympathetic coos from the audience.
Rebekah Coffey's Pamina and Jaewoo Kim's Tamino are both clear and nimble. Though Coffey had moments of affecting radiance, she sometimes pressured her voice more than is advisable in Mozart, and Kim, who was vocally more consistent, had a tendency to blur his words.
Argentinian soprano Fabiola Masino had all the notes for the Queen of the Night's demanding coloratura excursions, but the accuracy of her aim flagged a little during her big aria, and John Molloy's sometimes fog-hornish Sarastro would have been more impressive had he sung consistently on the note.
Louis Mahon, Louis O'Carroll and Seán Bean sang the parts of the three boys with cherubic allure, but the Lyric Opera Chorus put themselves under too much stress by seeking to create more volume than they could comfortably muster.
In this they were encouraged by conductor Fergus Sheil, who drew strong playing from the orchestra. But the drive and energy he created was no substitute for true rhythmic spring, and he also too often sought to substitute emphasis for expressive weight. In the end, this was one of those evenings that amounted to less than the sum of its parts. Also Tues MICHAEL DERVAN
Sextets in the City
Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin
Strauss Prelude to Capriccio
Brahms String Sextet No. 1 Op 18
What a great title! And the Hugh Lane is offering more Sextets in the City next month with works by Mozart and Poulenc for piano and winds. But it was strings only for Sunday's first instalment of the series.
There's a caveat, a statement of the obvious that has to accompany an ad hoc assembly of musicians for chamber music: that they are unlikely to sound as good as a dedicated, full-time ensemble.
And so it proved. That said, the six playing here are all members of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and so are well used to each other. Any lapses in blend or balance were minor blemishes symptomatic of the restrictions on their time together. Once you could see past that, there was a fine programme to be enjoyed, crowned by the Brahms Sextet Op. 18.
They began with the Prelude to Capriccio, Strauss's final opera which unusually opens with a string sextet. It had been nearly 40 years since he had last composed any chamber music. Yet these 11 minutes are tightly written and fully Straussian, fully operatic, with the six players here swinging dramatically between the emotional peaks and valleys.
This set up a nice contrast with the more restrained emotion of Brahms.
The first movement is underpinned by lilting, Austrian Ländlerrhythms and opens with an immediate demonstration of one of the grouping possibilities afforded by the sextet. Here, first cello Niall O'Loughlin was warm and lithe in a melody accompanied by second cello and viola - a rare, deep sonority that the string quartet can't give - and gently announcing the prominent role for the instrument throughout the piece.
Led with energy by violinist Sebastian Liebig, the six players explored and embraced Brahms's wide range of instrumental combinations. Of the solos that emerged from the various textures, most of those not assigned to cello were given with panache by Liebig or with the slightly darker, softened voice of the viola by John Lynch. The short Scherzo flew, and with the Schubertian finale the players brought the concert to a triumphant close. MICHAEL DUNGAN
