Opera Scotland

Zauberflöte 2009English Touring Opera

Read more about the opera Magic Flute

The annual visit to the Perth Festival brought two contrasting works in The Magic Flute and Kátya Kabanová. The repertoire for the tour also included some concert performances of Norma, which would have worked very well in the city's shiny new concert hall. For whatever reason, this did not happen, but the two productions that did come were well worthwhile. Katya  Kabanova was given on Friday 22 May, and Magic Flute on Thursday 21 May and Saturday 23 May.

This was an excellent, straightforward and gimmick-free staging, generally well sung and characterised, and it was all the better for it. Paula Sides and Laure Meloy were excellent as Pamina and the Queen, Daniel Grice a naturally exuberant Papageno, and Michael Bracegirdle and Siòn Goronwy fitted in very well as late stand-ins. Co-ordination between stage and pit for the dialogue also seemed unusually crisp - perhaps the small theatre helped, but Paul McGrath also kept things moving well.

Initially it seemed that the massive layered set crammed on to the tiny Perth stage might make things difficult in terms of basic logistics, but the movement and placement of principals was cleverly worked out and no problems developed.