It's Good to be Queen

Diana Damrau is a freak of nature! According to the stagebill, she pulled the Queen of the Night role out of retirement for a second farewell run (Trish and I saw last night's performance). She supposedly retired the role in 2006, but due to a scheduling snafu we were lucky enough to see one of her final Queen’s. Even more mind-boggling is the fact she sang the role of Pamina just three days prior in the same production. Sadly, I wish she could have played both roles last evening. Genia Kühmeier, as Pamina in her Met debut, sounded like a 13-year-old boy soprano - albeit a very good 13-year-old boy soprano; rarely a glimpse of vibrato and sometimes a hair under pitch on high entrances (most noticeable on the first note of Ach, Ich fühl’s). I’ll admit she did have some gorgeous high pianissimos and her acting was quite good. Although I didn’t dislike her, she didn’t really register for me one way or the other. But back to DD - after seeing so many lyric coloraturas just stand there and squeak out the role, it’s nice to see a real dramatic coloratura give us a full-voiced and well-acted Queen. Her performance was nuanced, emotional and solid. Her Der Hölle rach received a well-deserved prolonged ovation. My sister, not familiar with DD commented, “She’s crazy!” - in a good way, of course.

I'll admit that I only bought the ticket to see DD having seen the Taymor production in its original incarnation in 2004. This Flute has aged very well. It's still fresh and well executed, with audible gasps and ah's from the audience as sets revolved, bears cavorted, food floated through the air and birds danced en pointe.

Joseph Kaiser, singing Tamino, possessed a pretty, full legato voice and his top had a nice ring, although occasionally a bit nasal. I might add he's also a solid actor and easy on the eyes (although in that Cher a la 1970's wig, and geisha girl make-up, it's difficult to tell - fyi pic to the left is not Kaiser).

Stephane Degout possessed a clean, focused sound and filled out Papageno's tights quite well (if you see this production, you'll see why they're called that) and was charming and funny throughout - definitely an audience favorite. His Papagena was equally charming and effective in her transformation from old lady to young nymph but not so successful in the vocal department, all but disappearing beneath the orchestra and Degout.

It's interesting to note that last night's performers seemed to mine the book's comedy much more ably than the original cast I saw years ago, namely the three ladies and Monostatos. The whole cast seemed to be fully committed and enjoying their time on the stage. Some random thoughts: I love the dancing bears but wish I could have seen Taymor's take on other beasts; the concept of the three floating heads appeals to me, but I'm not sure it always works; the ending always seems rather abrupt to me and doesn't quite satisfy after everything that's come before it; the rumbling of the sets behind the scrim while Sarastro tried to sing his aria in one was totally distracting and seemed somewhat disrespectful to the performer.