The Magic Flute Video Stream

Recommended Resources

On CD:

Anneliese Rothenberger, Edda Moser, Peter Schreier, Walter Berry, Kurt Moll; cond. Wolfgang Sawallisch (Warner Classics label)

This captivating performance was recorded nearly 50 years ago, but it wears its years very well. The principals are all justly celebrated Mozartians, and they’re also native German speakers. Their complete ease in the language becomes hugely important in all the dialogue, which they deliver so convincingly, you’d think they were all actors from spoken theater. Moll’s majestic Sarastro and Moser’s magnificently blazing Queen of the Night are in a class by themselves, but in fact, the entire cast is in great form, under Wolfgang Sawallisch’s authoritative baton.

Pilar Lorengar, Cristina Deutekom, Stuart Burrows, Hermann Prey, Martti Talvela, cond. Sir Georg Solti (Decca label)
This is a polyglot cast, with the five principals each hailing from a different nation, but they form a surprisingly unified team. They all have highly individual, unmistakable voices, and they each create a vivid character—especially Prey’s Papageno, one of the best-loved operatic portrayals of our time. And, of course, with the Vienna Philharmonic under Solti, you have another genuine touch of class.

Christiane Oelze, Cyndia Sieden, Michael Schade, Gerald Finley, Harry Peeters, cond. Sir John Eliot Gardiner (DG Archiv label)

There’s no reason to limit yourself to either modern-instrument or original-instrument orchestras—you should have both! But if you really do crave original instruments in Mozart, you won’t find a better Flute than Gardiner’s English Baroque Soloists, who bring ideal precision to this music. On the podium, Gardiner offers both irresistible energy and unique elegance. Fortunately, he has an excellent cast as well. Oelze is a luminous Pamina, and with beautiful voices, thoughtful musicality, and wonderful teamwork, Schade’s Tamino and Finley’s Papageno individually and together are an absolute joy.

On DVD:

Irma Urrila, Josef Køstlinger, Birgit Nordin, Håkan Hagegård, Ulrik Cold; cond. Eric Ericson, dir. Ingmar Bergman. Sung in Swedish  (Criterion label)

Very possibly the greatest film ever made of a standard-repertoire work.  The Swedish translation doesn’t matter one bit, and your enjoyment will be enhanced by excellent subtitles (in certain passages, they’re even endearingly used in “follow-the-bouncing-ball” style). The opera is presented initially in a theater modeled exactly on the 18^th century one at Drottningholm in Sweden, but Bergman eventually opens things out beautifully, so the trappings of the theater disappear. The singing is adequate or better (actually quite wonderful in the case of Hagegård’s Papageno—The New Yorker’s original review rightly described him as “just this side of adorable”), and every principal is a simply perfect actor (certainly the Queen of the Night has never seemed a nastier piece of work than in Nordin’s terrifying portrayal). Hugely recommended!

Dorothea Röschmann, Diana Damrau, Will Hartmann, Simon Keenlyside, Franz-Josef Selig, cond. Sir Colin Davis, dir. Sir David McVicar (Opus Arte label)

This is essential viewing and listening for three glorious performances: Röschmann’s profoundly musical, lusciously warm-voiced, womanly Pamina; Damrau’s technically spot-on, dramatically hair-raising Queen of the Night (her acting of the dialogue before the vengeance aria is worthy of Glenda Jackson or Meryl Streep); and Keenlyside’s uniquely sweet, almost heartbreaking Papageno, which is also impeccably sung.  Wearing mainly 18^th-century costumes (with a few witty exceptions), the principals are directed with enormous sensitivity and the final effect is tremendously life-enhancing, as any great production of this opera must be.

Ying Huang, Erika Miklosa, Matthew Polenzani, Nathan Gunn, René Pape, cond. James Levine, dir. and des. Julie Taymor (Metropolitan Opera label)

Director/designer Julie Taymor is a true theatrical genius, and the Flute she created for the Metropolitan Opera is one of her greatest achievements to date. She calls this opera “a delicious kaleidoscope,” and that’s what her production communicates in the most dazzling way. Her sense of color couldn’t be bolder, and her imagination is boundless (who can forget the animals, with their look so wonderfully inspired by Japanese kites?) The Met’s DVD presents the company’s 100-minute adaptation for family audiences, sung in a charming English translation.  Everyone is beautifully cast, with particular delight provided by the ardent Matthew Polenzani (Tamino) and the velvet-voiced, physically incredibly adroit Nathan Gunn (Papageno).

Also on DVD:

Amadeus, starring F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce, dir. Forman (Warner Home Video)

Winner of eight Oscars (including Best Picture), the film adaptation of Peter Shaffer’s celebrated play pits the impulsive, childlike Mozart against his wildly ambitious rival composer, Antonio Salieri. Hulce is an irrepressible and, in the final scenes, immensely touching Mozart. Abraham’s Salieri, a portrayal that won the Best Actor Oscar, is totally mesmerizing. In this sumptuously beautiful production, the many operatic excerpts are sung by some of the most distinguished artists of the 1980s, among them Dame Felicity Lott, Anne Howells, Richard Stilwell, and Samuel Ramey.

At the book shop, at the library, or to order online:

Mozart’s Women: His Family, His Friends, His Music by Jane Glover (publ. Macmillan)

Conductor/scholar Jane Glover has written an enchanting book, full of revelations about the great Wolfgang and the women who surrounded him throughout his life (this was, of course, a composer who reveled in female attention from the time he began performing as a child right up to his untimely death). Among the women Glover discusses is Anna Gottlieb, the adorable young soprano for whom he wrote the role of Pamina in The Magic Flute.

Mozart: A Life by Maynard Solomon (publ. Harper Perennial)

If you’re craving a biography that will bring you an exceptionally full view of Mozart, written by a truly inquiring mind and impeccably researched, look no further!