Die Zauberflöte

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