Mozart: The Magic Flute

Advantages: Good introduction to the Opera and Mozart
Disadvantages: Narrative breaks up the musical flow

In a promotion aimed to make Opera more understandable and accessible, Naxos have produced a series of CDs entitle “Opera explained”. The ninth in the series released on 22nd October 2002, is The Magic Flute composed by Amadeus Wolfgang Mozart. All the CDs in the series roughly follow the same format. The first section of the CD, lasting for approximately quarter of an hour, provides a brief and basic biography Of Mozart and illustrated by excerpts ...
...continues with musical highlights from the Comic Opera interspersed with explanations of the plot and music. Mozart composed the Magic Flute in 1791 as a commission from Emanuel Schikaneder who provided the libretto. It’s debut performance took place on December 5th just a few weeks before Mozart’s death. The plot is basically that of a love story. A handsome young prince, Tamino (played by Herbert Lippert: Tenor) is saved from a serpent by three ... Read review

Advantages: Gaily jolly, irreverent, humorous, bawdy, tuneful. A masterful reworking of the primary opus of the master of French comic opera. If you enjoy Gilbert and Sullivan track this one down – I can guarantee you a surprisingly wonderful musical experience.
Disadvantages: None

...like a devil with horns, leading the orchestra as the revellers cavort around the floor”. So Offenbach did not invent the can can or even use the name. His music was taken up later by the theatre producers to accompany the stage performances. THE STAGE PERFORMANCE I was lucky enough to see this Opera North production of ‘Orpheus’ in their Spring Season 2000 at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle upon Tyne. Our party consisted of three generations with ages spanning early teens to early 70s. At that time, I had the same misconceptions that I listed at the start of the article and, apart from one production of Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute’ none of us had seen opera outside of the G&S catalogue and none of us had any idea what to expect. This was without doubt one of the most memorable evenings of music that we have had the pleasure of seeing... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Good for upsetting opera lovers
Disadvantages: You could lose the will to live

...from Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute.” If you manage to withstand this, try Track 14, which will give you an idea of the quality (or rather the lack of quality) of Thomas Burns’ voice. There are actually twelve tracks on the disc and not seventeen as suggested on the website (mercifully!). The number of this disc, for those who are still undeterred, is CD GD61175 and the label is RCA. Amazon is selling it at £8.99 and HMV at £10.99. However, if you can sacrifice the Faust items, you’ll find the Florence Foster Jenkins tracks, along with some others, on a Naxos Historical issue (shouldn’t that be Hysterical?) at £5.99 from Amazon under the title “Murder On The High Cs.” ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Other Uses ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ In certain areas of Britain, it has been found that playing classical music in places of high vandalism (bus... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: easy to find the piece of music you want
Disadvantages: maybe too familiar for the expert listener

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Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful