Mozart:
- Die Zauberflöte, K620
If there is one opera that I have watched more than any other, it likely is “The Magic Flute”. While this is a story about “Good and Evil”, it is also filled with wonderful humor, fun, laughter, and good feelings.
I think that I saw and heard this first as a 14 year – old lad, when my family spent a year in Vienna. There certainly is not better place than Vienna to get to know the music of Mozart.
The performers of the opera on this DVD are:
Pavol Breslik (Tamino), Kate Royal (Pamina), Dimitry Ivashchenko (Sarastro), Ana Durlovski (Queen of the Night), Michael Nagy (Papageno), Regula Mühlemann (Papagena), Annick Massis (First Lady), Magdalena Kožená (Second Lady), Nathalie Stutzmann (Third Lady), José van Dam (Speaker), James Elliott (Monostatos), Benjamin Hulett (First Priest), Jonathan Lemalu (Second Priest), Andreas Schager (First Armoured Man), David Jerusalem (Second Armoured Man)
And supported by the great Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle
Sir Simon Rattle said:
“There are some pieces which are so brilliantly successful and so immediately popular that people tend to forget how extraordinary they are. But let’s not forget what a raging masterpiece Mozart’s Magic Flute is and how different it was from anything anybody had done before – even Mozart.”
The Financial Times spoke of a “top-drawer cast”: “Pavol Breslik is all you could wish for in a Tamino, Michael Nagy’s Papageno is charismatic and lithe, and Kate Royal gives Pamina subtle complexity as well as grace.”
There is also the magic of new beginnings that comes with this Easter Festival opera performance, which took place in Baden-Baden, Germany, opening a new chapter in the history of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Here is a video for you of several highlights from “Die Zauberflöte”, at the Baden Baden Festival, conducted by Simon Rattle:
Wow! That’s a real teaser.
So here is some more of this magical music:
And finally, here is Sir Simon Rattle, talking about this festival hall has 2,500 seats and is the central venue of the orchestra’s Easter Festival, where four performances of Mozart’s Magic Flute, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, took place.
Tags: Berlin Philharmonic, Die Zauberflöte, Simon Rattle, Mozart