Review > Musical review: The Magic Flute
The "The Magic Flute" at Roslyn Chappel
FROM its opening words, this production is a magical Fringe event. It's the first time Mozart's The Magic Flute has been performed in the Rosslyn Chapel, bringing together a fantastical opera and a fantastical location, both with Masonic mysteries attached.
ROSSLYN CHAPEL (VENUE 74)
Secondly, the words are sung by Sam Furness, a superb student tenor who gives a magnificent impression of being on the run from a terrifying dragon. Looks, voice, dramatic charisma; his Prince Tamino has star power in spades, and in our case, from a distance of about two yards.
Tamino is rescued by the Three Ladies, servants of the Queen of the Night. Rachel Bagnall, Anna Gillingham and Grace Durham are served up in glittery wellies, in-your-face-outfits, and Amy Winehouse eyelashes; a vampy, welcome escort on the road ahead.
The Shadwell Opera was formed at Cambridge University in January 2009, with Jack Furness, Sam's brother, as director, to give promising students a part in operas for critical, paying audiences. This is only its second production, brought to Edinburgh on a budget of £5,000 with a cast and orchestra of 42.
The Countess of Rosslyn, whose family owns the chapel, says if this production goes down well, it could lead to an opera season in future years. Given that the company was drawn from choral scholars and leading music students from Cambridge, with many singing in prestigious choirs from childhood, the evening would have gone well even if they had all belted it out from the back in jeans.
For three hours, Shadwell had us all in thrall, in a musical temple whose high priests had bass and treble clefs painted in blue on their bare chests, with old 45s strung around their necks. This was my show of the festival.
Some of the cast sing better than they act, but Gareth John, as Papageno the bird-catcher, boasts commanding vocal skills and by the second act, considerable comic timing. Like Furness, he is going on to opera studies at the Royal Academy of Music, and must be marked 'one to watch'.
Natasha Goldberg is a wild-eyed, haughty Queen of the Night, boldly ripping into the staccato top notes of her famous entrance as if she wanted to chew them up and spit them out. Ed Ballard is a writhing, wonderfully nasty Monostatos; Marie-Claire Lindsay, a slightly simpering Pamina; Stefan Berkieta a suitably imperious Soroastro, whom Mozart landed with the devil of a bass part.
Reviewed in dress rehearsal (at the company's request) ahead of its short, sold-out run, this production has its flaws: there's more work to do on staging and seating to build atmosphere to the full. But it is witty and full of promise.
From the Three Boys, played by a charming trio of young teenage girls, and the witty translated libretto of Kit Hesketh-Harvey, this is a night to remember – and surely to be repeated.
Until 29 August. Today 7pm.
