AN ODD thing about David McVicar’s productions is the way they improve with time. When this show first appeared it was too po-faced by half, full of regard for the pomposities of the piece but hardly at ease with its lightness, enchantment and childish simplicity.
Magic Flute
Robert Thicknesse at Covent Garden [Times Online, 16 Feb 05]
AN ODD thing about David McVicar's productions is the way they improve with time. When this show first appeared it was too po-faced by half, full of regard for the pomposities of the piece but hardly at ease with its lightness, enchantment and childish simplicity.
Well, now the staging has grown a heart and a sense of wonder and comes close to truly discovering both the gravity and play of the piece. How much of this is due to Lee Blakeley, who took charge of this revival, is hard to say, but the pattern is interesting.
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Die Zauberflöte
Erica Jeal [The Guardian, 16 Feb 05]
With his Clemenza di Tito at ENO overlapping with his Zauberflöte at Covent Garden, David McVicar seems to be bidding for a monopoly on London's supply of Mozart opera. And no bad thing. Revived by Lee Blakeley, his 2003 Zauberflöte may tell us more about man's changing view of his place in the world at the time of the opera's composition than it does about the struggle between good and evil, but at least it tells us something.