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Editorial Reviews

With the likes of such legendary singers as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Christa Ludwig in supporting roles in this 1964 Die Zauberflöte, you know you're in the presence of an extraordinary opera recording. The great record producer Walter Legge sagely realized that the first stereo recording of Mozart's final stage work was an event worthy of the finest possible cast, and Legge's reputation was such that he could usually get what he wanted. He even snagged the celebrated conductor Otto Klemperer, who was 80 years old and had a stormy history of staged performances with this opera. The Klemperer magic is very much in evidence: No detail of the score eludes his sensitive shaping, yet not a moment drags. His singers seem to rise to his high standard of rhythmic verve and precision. Nicolai Gedda's lusty and earnest Tamino sounds Italianate but not rhythmically self-indulgent, and the fresh-voiced Gundula Janowitz lends Pamina's achingly beautiful aria "Ach, ich fühl's" an enormously satisfying suppleness. The exquisite Lucia Popp -- my nomination for Most Valuable Cast Member -- tosses off the Queen of the Night's rapid and stratospherically high passages with dazzling pitch and rhythmic perfection. Listen, too, to Papageno and Papagena's recognition duet, in which Walter Berry and Marga Höffgen have a delightful time playing with the birdlike clucking of the vocal patter. Indeed, it is Klemperer's infectious attention to all things rhythmic that ultimately makes this recording so special, giving the opera a vitality that one hears only far too rarely. David Kasunic, Barnes & Noble

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