W.A Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Charles Court Opera; Wilton’s Music Hall, Graces Alley, London E1, 25th February - 8th March 2025, 4☆☆☆☆. Review Clare Colvin.

Photo CreditL: Bill Knight.

W.A Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Charles Court Opera; Wilton’s Music Hall, Graces Alley, London E1, 25th February - 8th March 2025,

4☆☆☆☆. Review Clare Colvin.

“It’s a magic jungle out there.”

Charles Court Opera is celebrating its 20th anniversary year this week with a revival of the production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute with which it began its notable succession of more than 40 productions over the years, drawing on a range of musical classics. The anniversary is at Wilton’s, the former 19th century East End music hall, restored to its venue as a performance place in 2015.

The original concept for the Charles Court Opera Magic Flute was inspired by a trip to Peru which brought the designer Simon Bejer the idea of creating a lost temple in the middle of the jungle. Revival set and costume designer Lucy Fowler has certainly fulfilled the jungly theme. The pillars and balcony of the auditorium are festooned with ivy and a screen of vegetation covers the imposing head of a temple deity on stage. There’s a lot of dry ice pervading the start which gradually disperses, as Tamino writhes in a tangle of ropes before being released by the Queen of the Night’s Three Ladies. Disappointment at the economical serpent was later allayed by the fluorescent comic snakes flickering their tongues against a blacked-out background. The three boys who rescue Pamina and Papageno from their suicidal thoughts are brilliantly displayed as tropical bird puppets.

I’m not enamoured of the Freemason element that drives Mozart’s opera, or Sarastro’s homilies, but British Irish bass Peter Lidbetter in the role of the magus has a fine resonant voice that sinks to the depths. The singers are vocally well cast with the Latvian-born tenor Martins Smaukstelis as a very presentable hero Tamino. Soprano Alison Langer is a sweet-sounding Pamina and Matthew Kellett, who appears regularly with Charles Court Opera, makes a lovable Papageno. As Queen of the Night, Eleri Gwilym’s two suitably deranged and stratospheric arias won her the Audience Prize.

Till Saturday 8 March. www.wiltons.org.uk

Creatives

Director: John Savourin

Musical Director: David Eaton

Designer: Simon Bejer

Revival Director: James Hurley

Revival Designer: Lucy Fowler

Lighting Designer: Ben Pickersgill

Choreographer: Merry Holden

Production pictures: Bill Knight