The Metropolitan Opera HD Live Mozart's The Magic Flute (2006– ) watch online HD

This is the first time I've viewed a Julie Taymor production, and it was quite a treat. Normally, I listen to opera on DVD and skip to my favorite parts. When this version aired I came upon it by accident, not intending to sit through an entire opera. To my surprise, I found it entrancing. The integration of colorful costumes, technically marvelous sets, and what seems an adaption of Indonesian puppetry on a large scale made this version wonderful. On tape, the original libretto still holds its classic status. But on TV, the English version made it easier to appreciate, and the subtitles made the words, which were sometimes difficult to understand, much clearer, letting the plot make sense. Kudos to Julie Taymor. I look forward to seeing more of her work.

For as many years as I can remember there have been radio broadcasts of Saturday matinées from the New York Met. Suddenly there is a huge technological leap forward as they are broadcast live in widescreen, high definition television. Admittedly, we in the UK have to wait eight months before we can see them but it is still very exciting. That is why I should not be too grumpy about this production of the Magic Flute, directed by Julie Taymor. It is the first of a series of what the Met calls special holiday presentations. It cuts an hour off the usual running time, mainly by omitting most of the dialogue but also by omitting some arias or by reducing them in length. The object, I imagine, was to produce a Magic Flute that the whole family, including young children could enjoy. Curiously though, I could only spot a couple of children among the usual audience of well-heeled, middle-aged New Yorkers.

Visually this production is spectacular, as you might expect from Julie Taymor. There are animal dancers in fantastical costumes, wild animal puppets, and a huge prehistoric bird that caries the three boys across the stage. As the Queen of the Night sings, a troupe of puppeteers is required to manipulate her sensational costume. All the costumes are magnificent: I could have spent the entire production just trying to work out how they constructed Sarastro's cloak.

But, and there has to be a but, this emphasis on the visual is at the expense of the music and the drama. Eliminating the dialogue means that the opera makes even less sense than usual. Taymor gets round Mozart's racism by having a whiteface Monostatos. She gets round Mozart's sexism by making Sarastro an equal opportunities employer with half of the priests in his brotherhood being women.

René Pape is about as good a Sarastro as you can get. Ying Huang is a delectable Pamina, although I fear that she suffers more than the other principals from cuts in her music. Matthew Polenzani is an uninspiring Tamino, although it is an uninspiring role. Erika Miklósa is an unexciting Queen of the Night. Nathan Gunn plays Pappageno as a straightforward idiot with no hint of the complexity that this character can have. I last saw Nathan Gunn as Buzz Aldrin in Jonathan Dove's opera "Man on the Moon" so I was amused to see that his Pappageno costume looks like a green spacesuit. I did enjoy the moment where the Three Ladies strike him dumb by snatching his codpiece and locking it to his mouth. Otherwise, the Three Ladies are a miscalculation, on Taymor's part. They are unable to project their characters because they have to perform behind Disneyesque masks. The three boys, on the other hand, looked fantastic with white beards down to the ground. Unfortunately their singing is painful to the ear.

Although this broadcast is in English, it is also subtitled in English, presumably for the benefit of deaf opera lovers. Sorry, I said I would not be grumpy, but I think I have been.

This production dates from 2006; it is the second film of the Magic Flute for which James Levine is the conductor. If I much prefer the first version he conducted, from 1991, that's not to say that I don't find some pleasures in the new one. Julie Taymor won two Tony Awards for her design of The Lion King on Broadway, and this Magic Flute is visually splendid: The Queen of the Night's costume alone is a knock-out, with those wonderful butterfly wings, and Papageno wears a great green jumpsuit that suits his athletic bearing very well. But sets and costumes can't be everything in an opera film, we must judge the singers too. Matthew Polenzani has a fine lyric tenor and makes the boring character of Tamino somewhat appealing, Nathan Gunn in his jumpsuit has an irresistible charm and agility on stage (I see that he was voted one of the 100 sexiest men by People; they weren't wrong). Rene Pape seems a little ill-at-ease as Sarastro--he would probably like to sing in German. Erika Miklosa sings the Queen well, and seems not to be troubled by the coloratura.

The real problem for me is the rushed nature of the performance, with all the cuts to the music. It clocks in at 112 minutes, whereas Levine 1991 is 169 minutes. So we are missing almost a solid hour of music. There is a magical moment when Tamino meets the Speaker near the end of Act One; Bergman uses it in the puppet theatre scene in The Hour of the Wolf. Tamino asks "when will the darkness be cast aside... when shall my eyes see light?" The chorus answers, "soon, youth, or never". It's very slow, very dramatic and effective: one of Mozart's most gorgeous moments. It seems to pass unnoticed in this performance--Polenzani even seems a little befuddled by the haste of it all. This Magic Flute is for people who have never seen an opera, and who don't want too many moments that will stop them from texting.

I have always loved Mozart and Die Zauberflote(The Magic Flute), and while not my first choice I did enjoy this production. For me the outstanding productions are the 2003 Covent Garden production, the Bergman film, the 1982 Salzberg performance and the 1978 Glyndebourne production. Very good are the 1983 Munich performance and the 1991 Met production. This one is my least favourite perhaps but I still recommend it.

The production look absolutely spectacular visually. The sets have so much colour to them, and the costumes likewise, Queen of the Night's is a knockout and Papagaeno's jumpsuit perfectly shows off his athleticism. Of the staging, the most effective were the wild animals, they're fabulous to look at and move effortlessly on stage. The giant prehistoric bird looks imposing as well. High Definition is fantastic as always, but the sound in places could've done with more crispness.

Taymor also addresses the problems about the staging, especially with the characterisation of Monostatos and making Sarastro an employer of equal opportunities. Die Zauberflote is by far the most difficult of Mozart's operas to stage, and Taymor did very well with the ideas put forward and grabbed my interest.

Musically, it is better than you would expect. The music, even with the cuts(I was disappointed at the lack of any Papagaeno-Pamina duet or the scene between the Three Boys and Pamina) is of course magnificent, the orchestra play with a beautiful sound, the chorus are more balanced than they were in the 1991 production and James Levine does show some understanding of Mozart's style, the reading is brisk and not as broad or as plodding as it could have been.

English translation was better than anticipated, I personally do find the opera better in German, but apart from the odd part that sounds over-simplified such as Papagaeno's very first line of his introductory aria the translation is quite good. The performances are generally of a high standard. The standouts were Rene Pape, whose Sarastro is noble and firm and he has one of the more beautiful voices of anybody singing this role in my opinion and especially Nathan Gunn who puts so much energy and charm into Papagaeno.

I also thoroughly enjoyed Erika Miklosa as Queen of the Night. She isn't the most exciting singer I've heard in the role, but she does have a good stage presence exuding menace and threat and she is a miracle vocally coping very well with the difficult colouratura. Jennifer Aylmer is a witty Papagaena and Greg Federly is a fun Monostatos, what Tamor did with the character was refreshing in a sense and the first meeting between him and Papagaeno is a comic highlight. The Three Ladies are eluded by their masks, which I agree are rather Disney-esque, but they are well blended and commanding regardless.

Not quite as impressive is Ying Huang in the role of Pamina. She is suitably moving and delectable, is alluring on stage and sings beautifully. I do think however the role could've done with more radiance and innocence, though to be fair some of her best music is cut so those qualities without them wasn't perhaps so feasible. Matthew Polanzani has a good voice as Tamino, but like others in the role he is stiff, for me the best Tamino ever is Fritz Wunderlich. The Three Boys are sadly no better, they are sweet enough but their thin and out of tune singing with laboured high notes was painful on the ear.

Overall, a good production, but not great. 7/10 Bethany Cox