The expression “too soon” is usually applied to tasteless topical jokes, but it serves equally well for operatic productions. On Tuesday night, just three years after its premiere at the War Memorial Opera House, the San Francisco Opera revived designerJun Kaneko’s colorful, broad version of Mozart’s “Magic Flute.”
Speaking only for myself, I enjoyed the production well enough the first time around, in 2012. I wasn’t counting the days until it returned.
Unfortunately, Tuesday’s performance didn’t do much to burnish any fondly held memories. Kaneko’s designs — with their bright, Magic-Marker projections and patchwork quasi-Japanese sets and costumes — retain their power to charm and delight the eye, and there was a handful of first-rate vocal performances (including a dramatic last-minute substitution) to enhance the evening’s musical appeal.
But this wasn’t a performance that underscored either the comic zest or the spiritual aspirations that infuse “The Magic Flute” at its finest. Instead, we got corny, threadbare jokes, stage direction by Harry Silverstein that couldn’t quite decide how seriously to take anything that was happening, and — most infuriatingly of all — musical leadership from conductor Lawrence Foster that was both sluggish and technically uncertain.
The result was one of those productions that can put true “Magic Flute” aficionados on the defensive, assuring anyone who will listen that this product of Mozart’s final year is better than it seemed.
Yes, the plot is convoluted and forgetful, with manic shifts in tone and a great big moral flip-flop at the center — but with attentive rigor it can be made into something dramatically coherent having to do with love, honor and courage. And no, the score isn’t ponderous or dreary — it’s rich-hued and profound.
Just like the last time around, this “Flute” is done in an English translation by General DirectorDavid Gockley. I’m not sure why English is an improvement on the original German, given that the supertitles are operating throughout, but the aria translations at least do their job without making a fuss. The spoken dialogue, though, is cringe-inducing, a mixture of plodding literalism and wheezy attempts at mild outrageousness, and having every gag telegraphed by the titles only kills any possible trace of freshness.
Amid this discouraging setting, a listener felt thankful for an injection of high drama — particularly the unplanned casting switch for the high-profile role of the Queen of the Night. Soprano Albina Shagimuratova had handled this famously demandingly role memorably well in her 2012 company debut, but she called in sick just hours before curtain, leaving her cover, Kathryn Bowden, to take over.
An unenviable assignment, perhaps — but Bowden dispatched it superbly. She showed nerves for just a moment at the beginning of her Act 1 aria, figuring out the acoustics of the house and bringing her voice up to the necessary level; after that, it was clear sailing throughout.
Bowden came through even more powerfully in the Act 2 aria, “Der hölle Rache” (to give the piece its familiar German title), with its pinpoint coloratura and grueling high F’s. Some sopranos squeak those passages, but Bowden sang them out fully and precisely; the tumultuous applause that greeted her bore no trace of indulgence.