Reviewed by:

• Die Zauberflöte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Joseph A. Heissan Jr.

In Mozart’s singspiel Die Zauberflöte, the characters struggle to distinguish truth from lies. Chock-full of conjurings, transformations, mysterious trials, and magical instruments, the heavily allegorical libretto provides many opportunities for elaborate onstage illusions. While this contemporary-dress production at the Met certainly delighted the eyes and ears with inspiring theatrical artifice, what distinguished the staging by Simon McBurney (co-founder of Complicité) was the decision to place the artists creating those effects in clear view of the audience. Exposing the artists’ activities paradoxically exemplified the Enlightenment ideals of truth, honesty, and integrity woven into the libretto while also championing the power of the imagination in live performance-making.

Thomas Oliemans (Papageno) and Ruth Sullivan (Foley artist) in Die Zauberflöte. (Photo: Karen Almond/Met Opera.)

From the moment I entered the auditorium in search of my seat, I noticed the creative team had worked to reinforce our collective awareness of being in the Metropolitan Opera House awaiting the performance. The open stage curtain revealed the upstage cyclorama and exposed wings. The minimal scenery consisted of a centerstage platform with four corner cables, each connected to tower-like scaffolding that formed two proscenium arches over the platform, thus creating a smaller onstage stage. (When repositioned during the performance, this platform was transformed imaginatively into various objects and locales.) In the orchestra pit, raised flooring made the musicians visible. After finishing their last-minute preparations, the actors, [End Page 226] who would serve as performer-puppeteers, took seats in chairs out on the apron, stage left and stage right, near the Met’s proscenium arch. Even farther left and right on the apron, workbenches displayed various materials and equipment. When the overture began, visual artist Blake Habermann and Foley artist Ruth Sullivan entered and walked onto the down-center apron to observe the audience. They exchanged glances confirming all was ready to begin. Habermann then crossed to one workbench and Sullivan to the other. From the beginning, this production called attention to the presence of these artists, whose labor—like that of most theatrical designers—might well have been left invisible.

Seth Morris (Flute Soloist), Lawrence Brownlee (Tamino), and the ensemble in Die Zauberflöte. (Photo: Karen Almond/Met Opera.)

The illusions Habermann and Sullivan produced during the performance, through projections and sound effects, respectively, proved especially engaging because we could view their creation in real time. In addition to Habermann using a chalkboard to generate a series of text and line-drawing projections—mountains, whirlpools, atmospheric changes, godlike commentaries, manifestations of characters’ emotions—he also employed shadow-puppetry to evoke appearances by Papageno (Thomas Oliemans) and the Three Boys (Deven Agge, Julian Knopf, and Luka Zylik) as well as physical objects like books to conjure Sarastro’s temple. Similarly, Sullivan utilized everyday items—bottles, shoes, sheet metal, an umbrella, rocks, a bucket—to produce various sound illusions. The impact of this multisensory trompe l’œil (and l’oreille) was enhanced whenever characters not only acknowledged the presence of these artists but also conspired with them to create onstage illusions. Allowing us to discover how these two artists engaged our imaginations made their illusions oddly more impactful.

The actors tasked with conjuring the birds that repeatedly flocked around Papageno employed a style of puppetry that made no attempt to conceal their own existence as puppeteers from the audience. For the birds’ initial appearance, eight of these actors and every member of the orchestra grabbed half-folded pieces of sheet music that resembled bird wings. Everyone then raised and lowered their hands as a group—much like fans doing the wave in a soccer stadium—which conjured a huge flock of birds rippling across the pit. The actors then made their birds swoop over toward Papageno to flit about him. Given the imaginative energy the audience invested in the birds whenever they appeared, it was no surprise that...

 审阅者：

• 
  沃尔夫冈·阿玛多伊斯·莫扎特的《魔笛》
• 
  小约瑟夫·A·海桑

在莫扎特的歌唱剧《魔笛》中，人物们努力区分真相和谎言。充满寓言性的歌词充满了魔术、转变、神秘的考验和魔法乐器，为精心设计的舞台幻觉提供了许多机会。虽然大都会艺术博物馆的这部当代服装作品凭借鼓舞人心的戏剧技巧确实令人赏心悦目，但西蒙·麦克伯尼（Complicité 联合创始人）的舞台表演的独特之处在于，他决定将创造这些效果的艺术家置于观众清晰的视野中。揭露艺术家的活动矛盾地体现了融入剧本的真理、诚实和正直的启蒙理想，同时也捍卫了现场表演中的想象力的力量。

托马斯·奥利曼斯（帕帕吉诺）和露丝·沙利文（拟音艺术家）在《魔笛》中。 （照片：凯伦·阿尔蒙德/大都会歌剧院。）

从我进入礼堂寻找座位的那一刻起，我注意到创意团队一直在努力强化我们在大都会歌剧院等待演出的集体意识。打开的舞台幕布露出了后台的天幕和裸露的翅膀。最小的布景由一个带有四根角缆的中央舞台平台组成，每根缆索都连接到塔状脚手架，在平台上形成两个舞台拱门，从而形成一个较小的舞台。 （当在表演过程中重新定位时，这个平台被富有想象力地转变为各种物体和场所。）在乐池中，高架地板使音乐家可见。完成最后一刻的准备工作后，将担任表演木偶师的演员们[结束第226页]在靠近大都会艺术博物馆舞台拱门的围裙、舞台左侧和舞台右侧的椅子上就座。停机坪的左右两侧，工作台上陈列着各种材料和设备。当序曲开始时，视觉艺术家布莱克·哈伯曼和拟音艺术家露丝·沙利文走了进来，走上中间的围裙观察观众。他们交换了一个眼神，确认一切都准备好了，可以开始了。然后哈伯曼走到一个工作台，沙利文走到另一个工作台。从一开始，这部作品就引起了人们对这些艺术家的关注，他们的劳动——就像大多数戏剧设计师的劳动一样——很可能被忽视了。

赛斯·莫里斯（长笛独奏家）、劳伦斯·布朗利（塔米诺）以及《魔笛》中的合奏团。 （照片：凯伦·阿尔蒙德/大都会歌剧院。）

哈伯曼和沙利文在表演过程中分别通过投影和音效产生的幻觉被证明特别引人入胜，因为我们可以实时观看他们的创作。哈伯曼除了用黑板生成一系列文字和线条投影——山脉、漩涡、大气变化、神一般的评论、人物情感的表现——他还利用皮影戏来唤起帕帕吉诺（托马斯·奥利曼斯饰）的形象。和三个男孩（Deven Agge、Julian Knopf 和 Luka Zylik）以及书籍等实物来召唤萨拉斯特罗的神庙。同样，沙利文利用日常用品——瓶子、鞋子、金属板、雨伞、石头、水桶——来产生各种声音错觉。当角色不仅承认这些艺术家的存在，而且还与他们合谋创造舞台上的幻觉时，这种多感官错视画（和l'oreille）的影响就会增强。让我们发现这两位艺术家如何激发我们的想象力，使他们的幻想更加具有影响力。

演员们的任务是召唤那些反复聚集在帕帕吉诺周围的鸟儿，他们采用了一种木偶表演风格，并没有试图向观众隐瞒自己作为木偶师的存在。在鸟儿的首次亮相中，八名演员和乐团的每位成员都抓起了半折叠的乐谱，这些乐谱类似于鸟儿的翅膀。然后，每个人都集体举起和放下双手，就像球迷在足球场里挥手一样，这会召唤出一大群鸟儿在坑中荡漾。然后，演员们让他们的鸟儿飞向帕帕吉诺，在他周围飞来飞去。考虑到每当这些鸟儿出现时，观众们都在它们身上投入了丰富的想象力，所以毫不奇怪……