Advantages: Good introduction to the Opera and Mozart Disadvantages: Narrative breaks up the musical flow
and clarity. The two classic lovers, Tamino and Tamina, are suitably serious and ardent. The other lover in the opera, Papageno and Papagena are contrastingly humourous and down-to-earth. The Queen of the Night is magnificent. She exudes evil in her double aria, performing vocal athletics to achieve the technically difficulties written by Mozart.
The conductor Michael Halasz achieves excellence from both the Failoni Orchestra (pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, and trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and full strings) and the Hungarian Festival Chorus. The overture establishes the noble and solemn tone including in its instrumentation, parts for three trombones. Papageno?s fluttering and melodic theme provides a lightness with joyful and fun interludes to the seriousness.
The text written by Thomson Smillie is entertaining ...
Advantages: Cheap, easy to listen to Disadvantages: Won't rock your world
This is an elegantly packaged and well presented CD which pretty much does just what it says on the box. It is a re-release from EMI's excellent and superbly engineered back catalogue, well at this price what would you expect? The English Chamber Orchestra is ably marshalled by Sir Yehudi Menuhin, who for all his genius as a solo violinist, never really achieved top-flight status as a conductor. And alongside him the flute playing from Samuel Coles is bright and suitably mellifluous. These are pieces you will know, even if you didn't know that you knew them. Their vintage puts them at the back end of the time before period instrument performances began to dominate the market in classical music. In that sense this is a refreshingly full-bodied listen, without the up-beat tempi, straight-edged strings and honking wind and brass ...
Advantages: Origami-like sets, costumes, bold basic colors; Mozart's music, all sung beautifully. Disadvantages: Un-PC elements may cause unease in modern audiences.
Opera-haters may just succumb to the charms of this delightful stage version of 'The Magic Flute', Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's popular opera. Created in that highly disciplined world of specialized vocal and instrumental music and theatre, it remains among the lightest in the genre. The story amounts to little more than a children's tale with the usual elements of heroism, love, revenge, forgiveness, etc. Ah, but the most aurally pleasing music of Mozart elevates it to a higher plane.
From Arthaus Musik DVD comes this modern, minimalist and playful production of Mozart's final operatic work, 'The Magic Flute / Die Zauberflöte', perfomed live on 26 August 1992 at the Ludwigsburger Schloßfestspiele.
Basic Plot Premise.
Our hero, Prince Tamino, is rescued from a giant serpent by the Three Ladies of the Queen of the Night. The Queen ...
![Mozart - Flute Concertos/Concerto For Flute And Harp [DVD]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/80343499.jpg "Mozart - Flute Concertos/Concerto For Flute And Harp [DVD]")
