It’s as tall an order as the Unicorn Theatre for Children could set for itself, making a children’s version of The Magic Flute. But artistic director Richard Williams has succeeded, bringing together concert pianist Joanna MacGregor to arrange the music for a small ensemble, Jeremy Sams to adapt the libretto for our times and Simon Nicholson to write the lyrics.
In this production, the Queen of the Night, a faded rock megastar, is involved in a tug of love with her former husband, mega-magnate turned evangelical environmentalist Sarastro, who has abducted their daughter Pamina. Tamino, a tabloid journalist and Papageno, the Queen’s Glaswegian roadie, are dispatched to rescue the girl, armed with mobile phone and laptop.
What’s so masterful about the adaptation is the way that, while creating a linear narrative, it still manages to retain the exquisite silliness of the original. Lyrics the likes of Monastatos’ seductive “Let me fascinate you with details of my pension scheme” had children and adults alike clamouring for more.
But this is opera, and while the comedy is cleverly constructed and the Wall Street-inspired design by David Collis truly wonderful to behold, it’s the singing that ultimately steals the show.
The voices of Richard Edgar-Wilson, Iren Bartok, Olivia Blackburn and Stuart Macintyre fill the theatre with a richness that most children will not have heard before. Not even the infelicitous inclusion of an undeniably tinny sounding synthesizer, accompanying the accordion and clarinet, could mar this exceptional production.
Until March 1. Box office: 071 836 3334.
