Above: soprano Joélle Harvey, this evening’s Pamina
Monday December 26th, 2022 – The Met’s pared-down, English-language MAGIC FLUTE always offers a chance to hear interesting singers, from veterans to debutantes. Tonight’s cast featured a longtime favorite, Alan Held, as the Speaker, and the Polish soprano Aleksandra Olczyk as the Queen of the Night in her Met debut season.
Under Duncan Ward’s baton, the opera flew by. A packed house gave only meager applause to the arias (Ms. Olczyk’s “wrath of hell” aria being the exception). But at the curtain calls, it was Joélle Harvey who received the greatest barrage of cheers…and rightly so, for she sang exquisitely.
Ben Bliss was an excellent Tamino, finely shaping and enunciating his Portrait Aria (which is cruelly shortened in this production) and truly impressive at “O endless night…”, the opening phrase of Tamino’s great scene with The Speaker. For me, this is the pivotal passage of the opera, and Mr. Held’s responses to Mr. Bliss’s questions had gravity and meaning. Excellent, gentlemen!
The Three Ladies (Jessica Faselt, Megan Marino, and Carolyn Sproule) sounded overly-vibrant at first, but soon smoothed things out and did some fine singing. I especially liked Ms. Sproule’s timbre: it is the lowest voice that gives the Ladies’ trios their moving parts. The Three Spirits were rather weak at first, but they later perked up. I love their advice to the suicidal Papageno: “You have a life, so live it while you can!”
Joshua Hopkins was again a very enjoyable Papageno, sure of voice and clear of diction. Soloman Howard sang Sarastro’s two great arias with nobility and rich tone, and – at the opposite end of the vocal spectrum – Aleksandra Olczyk tossed off the Queen of the NIght’s pyrotechnics successfully: the voice brightens at the top, making the high-Fs easy targets for her. A bit of pitchiness did not deter from her success.
Rodell Rosel repeated his crafty Monastatos, and Lindsey Ohse’s spirited Papagena showed her lustiness in the spoken dialogue: I think she will be wearing the pants in that marriage.
Ms. Harvey walked away with top honors this evening; Pamina’s aria had a tonal shimmer that fascinated me, especially in the floated piani notes, which gave me goosebumps. The soprano’s luminous sound at “Be truthful…be truthful...” was matched soon after with her radiant “Tamino mine…”
~ Oberon
Oberon's Glade 