User reviews

Die Zauberflote(The Magic Flute) is a wonderful opera, one of Mozart's best and certainly one of my favourites. There are several very good to great DVD performances available, Munich, Hamburg, Met(1991), Salzburg(1982) and Glyndebourne. This production is not quite up there, but I found myself enjoying it a lot. It is heavily abridged though, which makes the story less cohesive and what is cut is some quite beautiful passages. If you are not familiar with the story or seeing the opera for the first time, subtitles unfortunately are not going to help and there aren't any, considering that there will be people new to Die Zauberflote I think there should have been some so that they understood the dialogue and the story. The chorus, or choral group, sing very well though could have benefited being larger considering the venue and type of production it was. However, it is colourful and imaginative visually, with staging that is entertaining and fantastical while allowing the human edge of the drama to come out. The orchestra play vibrantly and stylishly, and the conducting is clearly directed and musical. The singing and acting are of high quality. Michael Kurz's Tamino is youthful and ardent with a lovely lyric tenor voice, while Birgit Beer's Pamina is vocally radiant and dramatically affecting. The Papagaeno of Sebastian Holecek is very animated and charming, and Elisabeth Ofenbock likewise as Papagaena. Erika Miklosa gives a Queen of the Night of chilling authority, she has a powerful voice also that doesn't sound too smudged in the passage-work. Maxim Mihailov's Sarastro is wonderful, he has a noble and benevolent stage presence, and his voice has a lot of warm sonority that he couples with natural phrasing. All in all, not for those with cuts but because it is entertaining and well sung it is a production that isn't to be dismissed as quickly as that. 8/10 Bethany Cox

As in the cases of two other operas, Aida and Carmen, that were filmed in 1999 at the St. Margarethen operatic festival in Austria's state of Burgenland, and released upon DVDs, this German language effort may displease those to whom subtitling translation from a foreign tongue is of first concern, as there is none, but any abiding interest within a viewer for Mozart's piece will be more affected by severe abridgement that eliminates numerous pages of the score. German text of the plot abstract, with voice-over, utilized during the playing of the overture leads into this stunning achievement that features inspiring outdoor special effects ably executed by a crew under the leadership of Robert Herzl. Numerous widely disparate interpretations of Zauberflöte exist, with Herzl's staging emphasis here upon the fabulous being not only effectively accomplished, but permissive of all denotations, even to some of a revisionist attitude. A stylized setting created by the Stagione D'Opera Italiana production is, as ever during this Festival, ensconced within a Roman quarry that provides a superb acoustic fundament for the talented soloists, Junge Bundesländer Philharmonie conducted by Michael Lessky, as well as a choral group frequently employed by the Stagione team: Honved Ensemble Budapest, the sole professional male choir based in Europe. The plot of the opera, a tale of lovers unwillingly separated and compelled to succeed at a challenging series of trials in order to be reunited, presents to Mozart an opportunity to construct a portmanteau of scenes suffused with bright moments, while free from longueurs. Although originally intended by the composer to be in singspiel format, numerous memorable arias are to be found throughout, and an able cast offers clinker-free singing, with Erika Miuklosi as Queen of the Night additionally earning acting honours here, with all giving performances that greatly pleased the sold-out live audience, only a surfeit of cutting bound to disgruntle DVD viewers.