The Charm of the Partial Staging

Iván Fischer’s semi-staged Nozze di Figaro, which opened the Konzerthaus Orchestra’s season back in 2013, was both a musical triumph and an unexpectedly successful example of how to perform an opera in the non-theatrical setting of a concert hall. As a long-delayed follow-up to that excellent evening, Mr Fischer and the Konzerthaus Orchestra gave a performance of Die Zauberflöte that was simultaneously more ambitious and less consistent. Yet if the parade of ingenious flourishes seemed more clever stage-management than high drama, Mr Fischer’s reading of the score, both graceful and vigorous, was a source of frequent delight.

The main hall of the Konzerthaus, an opulent room with a great acoustic, has obvious limitations as a dramatic venue and any attempts at staging will, of necessity, be somewhat minimal. The problem of the story’s…