Mozart - Die Zauberflote (1991)

Levine's

By threerandot  Jun 14, 2001 | 8 out of 9 found this Mozart - Die Zauberflote (1991) review helpful

I just purchased this DVD of "The Magic Flute" about 2 months ago. The problems one can encounter with recordings of this opera can make it very difficult to choose which recording of The Magic Flute to purchase. Some have all the dialogue(Mozart and... his leibretist including large amounts of dialogue). Many conductors will either cut out almost all of the dialogue, or as in the case of Otto Klemperer's recording for EMI many years ago, all of it. For those who prefer to have a recording with dialogue, or perhaps all of it(I'm not sure how much has been included here), opera fans can look forward to a great performance here. This recording was made in 1991 and a very good cast brings Mozart's masterpiece to life. There is excellent set design as well as wondeful singing by everyone involved. Battle gives a sensitive and warm performance as Pamina the daughter of the evil Queen Of The Night(Lucianna Serra). Serra's part as the Queen is brief but her impeccable execution of the Queen's high notes will make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. Francisco Araiza plays the young and straight-laced hero Tamino who falls in love with Pamina just by gazing at a picture of her. Kurt Moll is engaging as the wise and gentle Sarastro, leader of the priests who challenge Tamino and his friend the bird-catcher Papageno, played by Manfred Hemm to a series of challenges in order for Tamino to win the hand of Pamina and Papageno to also win the hand of Papagena(Barbara Kilduff).The original production was designed by David Hockney and is excellent at portraying the fairy tale quality of Mozart's opera.The DVD itself only has one extra feature: a series of still frame shots of other DVD releases coming out by Deutsche Grammophon. The Opera can be viewed with English, German, French and Chinese subtitles. The menus can be viewed in English and Chinese. DG have not gone to great lengths to include extras, but these DVD's have wondeful sound and beautiful picture quality. There seems to be no traces of graininess or artifacts, but these operas were shot, I think on VideoTape and are only in full frame format(1.33:1) and look marvelous, except for the odd moment on this DVD when the camera zooms in and we have a blurred image. (All of these DVD's were originally Televised I beleive). DG have finally put their toe in to releasing DVD's of operas. (About a dozen so far) I know there are a fair amount of Opera releases out there, but it seems very slow to catch on. I see DVD as the format that should have Opera and Classical music fans like myself coming out of the wood-work to purchase titles just like this one. VHS never looked this good! With exceptional picture quality and excellent digital sound, this is a DVD worth the price. I paid $29.99 Canadian and it looks fantastic. I look forward to reviewing "Die Walkure", which I just purchased. Read more Less