Urban Shocker
Doyenne
Welcome to our 50,000th visitor ... whoever it was.
To The Magic Flute on Saturday. Candy-coloured and saccharine-laden, and intended as the COC's version of The Nutcracker, I think. A bit too gooey for my tastes, but well enough sung and as popular as ever. Michael Schade lumbered about the stage and appeared to be wearing the same unflattering, tight white suit that made him look like a beached whale when he lay on the stage in the COC's recent Rusalka, and he reprised the lounging for this opera to equally risable effect - though both he and Isabel Bayrakdarian sounded lovely whether vertical or prone. Aline Kutan as the Queen of the Night ( she sang Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen at the hall's opening gala in 2006 ) got to wear a big, sparkly black number that was pure Liberace, and the Three Ladies - dressed as Goths - were entertaining enough in their own ways. Papageno ( Rodion Pogossov ) was as much fun as he was as Figaro in The Barber of Seville and skipped about the stage.
The play-within-the-play ploy was a bit precious in act 1, and there was too much hedge-moving in act 2. The trials by fire and water effects were hokum.
To The Magic Flute on Saturday. Candy-coloured and saccharine-laden, and intended as the COC's version of The Nutcracker, I think. A bit too gooey for my tastes, but well enough sung and as popular as ever. Michael Schade lumbered about the stage and appeared to be wearing the same unflattering, tight white suit that made him look like a beached whale when he lay on the stage in the COC's recent Rusalka, and he reprised the lounging for this opera to equally risable effect - though both he and Isabel Bayrakdarian sounded lovely whether vertical or prone. Aline Kutan as the Queen of the Night ( she sang Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen at the hall's opening gala in 2006 ) got to wear a big, sparkly black number that was pure Liberace, and the Three Ladies - dressed as Goths - were entertaining enough in their own ways. Papageno ( Rodion Pogossov ) was as much fun as he was as Figaro in The Barber of Seville and skipped about the stage.
The play-within-the-play ploy was a bit precious in act 1, and there was too much hedge-moving in act 2. The trials by fire and water effects were hokum.