<<  -- 17 --  Roderic Dunnett    WIT AND ORIGINALITY

One weakness in Schikaneder's libretto, it seems to me, is that Eutifronte only discovers that Nadir, his intended agent of death (like Pamina in The Flute) is Astromonte's actual son, and therefore his own nephew, in the closing scene of the opera (this is a key part of the supposed 'denouement'). Yet revealed as rapidly as this, in a fast-moving finale, without the wit of an Oscar Wilde, the moment seems somehow trivialised, a pantomime-standard final revelation. Eutifronte's machinations would have an added sinister quality if he were actually the only one (apart from Astromonte) in the know: and thus, evil though he be, in fact the loyal guardian of the family secret, who is unable to tell and has actually (for whatever reason: power, mainly) kept the secret (perhaps he might owe his realm and dukedom to this very fact, and its blackmailing potential); but who gains secretly revenge for his enforced loyalty by systematically and spiritually prising away his brother's heir. The ultimate wicked uncle, in fact. Any bit of this might have brought the already impressive and expressive Philosophers's Stone closer in tautness, and in moral weight also, to The Magic Flute.

Schikaneder comes good as a composer, too (quite apart from any involvement he had with Henneberg in the prolonged finales), with a scintillating late aria for Nadine ('Mein einziger, liebster Nadir! Wo bist du? Nadine ruft dir.'), in which the true beauty of Amy Freston's lyrical voice at last began to shine out. For this designer Peter Ruthven Hall sets out the Garsington loggia's niches as a charming bower, the enchanting moment coming just as darkness falls outside, enabling lighting designer Malcolm Rippeth to focus and curdle beams of yellow light beautifully upon it.

This was a moment of pure enchantment, whose unnervingly gorgeous music puts one in mind of Weber's Agathe, Raisa and Euryanthe. It was immediately followed by Mozart's cat duet (as hilarious and ear-teasing, if not quite as searing as Rossini's). Someone was surely having fun, too, when Lubano has to sing to Eutifronte, who has caged him, 'O schwarzer Kerl, Barmherzigkeit!' ('Show mercy, you black villain!'): Eutifronte was of course sung by Schikaneder's colleague Franz Gerl, the great comic basso, and so far from a real villain, the future Sarastro.

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