{"id":42405,"date":"2017-01-30T13:27:47","date_gmt":"2017-01-30T18:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=42405"},"modified":"2017-01-30T13:28:18","modified_gmt":"2017-01-30T18:28:18","slug":"scrutiny-coc-magic-flute-alternative-cast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/01\/30\/scrutiny-coc-magic-flute-alternative-cast\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | COC’s \u201cAlternate Cast\u201d Of Mozart’s Magic Flute Every Bit As Enjoyable As The First"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"(l-r)
(l-r) Owen McCausland as Tamino, Kirsten MacKinnon as Pamina and Matt Boehler as Sarastro in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of The Magic Flute, 2017. (Photo: Michael Cooper)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Given how popular Mozart\u2019s The Magic Flute<\/em><\/a> is, the Canadian Opera Company is giving a total of twelve performances. It sounds like a lot, but it\u2019s far from a record. I think there were at least as many performances of the La boheme<\/em> two years ago, and a Madama Butterfly<\/em> further back in time had a whopping 15 performances!\u00a0 With so many shows, the principals are typically double cast. I hesitate to use the terms \u201cfirst\u201d and \u201csecond\u201d or \u201cA\u201d and \u201cB\u201d casts, as these words imply the non-opening night cast is somehow inferior. I attended the opening of the \u201cAlternate Cast\u201d Sunday afternoon, and found it every bit as enjoyable.<\/p>\n

Four of the principals yesterday were different from opening night. Former COC Ensemble tenor Owen McCausland (Tamino) sang with rich, ringing tone. His good-sized, vibrant tenor has a fast vibrato which, while not to everyone\u2019s taste, is nicely modulated in the marvelous acoustics of the Four Seasons Centre. Dramatically, his Tamino is suitably princely and engaging if on the reserved side, a nice contrast to the exuberant Papageno of Canadian baritone Phillip Addis, who acted up a storm. Addis gave a winning performance as the Bird-catcher, singing with robust tone, and received one of the biggest ovations in the final curtain.<\/p>\n

\"Phillip
Phillip Addis as Papageno (far left), Michael Colvin as Monostatos (centre) and Kirsten MacKinnon as Pamina in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of The Magic Flute, 2017. (Photo: Michael Cooper)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BC soprano Kirsten MacKinnon is a voice new to me. I find her Pamina sympathetic and beautifully sung, whether in the ensembles or in the silvery \u201cAch, ich fuhl\u2019s.\u201d\u00a0 Her skill at playing the Papageno Pan Flute is a work in progress, however \u2014 I say that with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek. The fourth new principal, Matt Boehler (Sarastro) has a beautiful, warm timbre to his bass and the requisite gravitas, if only a little short on the booming low notes in his two arias.<\/p>\n

Spoken dialogue is always the bane of the existence of opera singers. Any of them will tell you they would rather not speak on stage, especially in a big theatre. Magic Flute<\/em> and the other singspiel pieces like Der Freischutz<\/em> have copious dialogue. I find that in Europe, often the dialogue is amplified by hidden stage microphones, although never the singing of course. \u00a0Yesterday afternoon, a few had to struggle to be heard, with the chief casualty being MacKinnon, who failed to sufficiently project. But given her lovely singing, it was a minor quibble.<\/p>\n

\"Owen
Owen McCausland as Tamino in a scene from in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of The Magic Flute, 2017. (Photo: Michael Cooper)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I should also mention that the rest of the cast performed the previous evening, meaning they had to sing twice in under twenty hours, not exactly ideal, particularly for the Queen of the Night. While she has only about ten minutes of music, those are killer minutes. Under the circumstances, dramatic coloratura Ambur Braid did very well, with a nearly flawless \u201cO zittre nicht\u201d and \u201cDer h\u00f6lle rache,\u201d a few fleeting intonation and pitch issues notwithstanding. Her silent-movie Queen was as vivid as ever. The rest of the cast was fine. Now that Aviva Fortunata (First Lady) is back to health, she sang beautifully, as did Emily D\u2019Angelo and Lauren Segal. The only other change was the First Armed Man, sung by tenor Andrew Haji, who was the previous evening\u2019s Tamino.<\/p>\n

Baroque and Mozart specialist Bernard Labadie led the COC forces in a sparkling and elegant performance. The Diana Paulus production remains a delight. Counting the various dress rehearsals and ensemble shows from 2011 and now, I probably have seen this six or seven times by now. It\u2019s as fresh and appealing as ever, such is the power of Mozart. The Magic Flute<\/em> continues to February 24<\/a> at the Four Seasons Centre.<\/p>\n

For more REVIEWS, click HERE<\/u><\/a><\/span>.<\/h3>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canadian Opera Company’s alternate cast of the Magic Flute holds the momentum with Owen McCausland and Kirsten MacKinnon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":42413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,43,52,63],"tags":[628,3279],"yst_prominent_words":[6885,8540,8545,8554,8547,8553,9353,9347,9348,8210,8549,9352,8550,9345,9350,9351,6911,8551,8546,9334],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/01\/MagicFlute-MC-0630.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-b1X","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42405"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42405"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42421,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42405\/revisions\/42421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42405"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=42405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}