Advantages: Excellent performances in a perfect setting Disadvantages: Very minor quibbles
Background:
When it comes to prodigious over-achievers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has to be placed somewhere at the top of the list. Despite his tragically short life from 1756-1791, his musical creativity has assured him of eternal fame as long as human civilisation performs Western classical music.
But when one considers Mozart's background, one can understand where his genius came from. His father Leopold Mozart was a virtuoso violinist whose treatise on violin playing is still a standard read for any aspiring violin student today. It is also worth considering how things might have been different had female instrumentalists been able to pursue a professional career as adults - as his beloved sister Nannerl was no mean keyboard player, but obviously once she became an adult it was not really considered the done thing for her ...
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 ...
Advantages: One of the finest casts ever Disadvantages: Mono Sound, that's all
MOZART - COSI FAN TUTTE - KARJAN EMI
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When critics line up the best available recordings of Mozart's superb comic opera "Così fan tutte" two recordings are almost invariably up there, Karl Böhm's second recording from 1962 (EMI - Stereo) and Herbert von Karajan's recording from 1954 (EMI - Mono). The remarkable Elisabeth Schwarzkopf is present in both recording as the charming Fiordiligi. I prefer her fresher voice in 1954 but she, like the other artists in the Böhm recording, benefit from the fresh stereo sound. One of the glories of the gramophone is Schwarzkopf, Merriman and Bruscantini in "Soave sia il vento" - simply breathtaking as regards phrasing, beauty of tone and the organic feeling to the ensemble. Giuseppe Taddei (Böhm) and Rolando Panerai (Karajan ...
