5.0 out of 5 stars
live and vibrant, including the dialogues, irreplaceable!, February 21, 2011
This review is from: Mozart: Die Zauberflöte (Audio CD)
This live recording from Munich ( July 1964) bursts with enthusiasm ( audience and cast marvelously captured!) I found it preferable to most"wonderful" studio recordings, from Beecham and Karajan to Bõhm and Klemperer: the stage experience is palpable, including the dialogues,monologues and audience reactions, vividly, dramatically and, yes, musically "acted" by a team of singers who were brought up in the tradition of "singspiel". For auditors and spectators who have endured abridged,translated ( or suppressed!)dialogues in stage productions and recordings, This should be a revelation. Add to that the best Pamina-Tamino duo( the ideal Fritz Wunderlich, of course, but especially the delightful Anelies Rothenberger, my favorite Pamina, and the famous and still fresh-voiced Papageno of Hermann Prey, the then irreplaceable Queen of Erica Köth, a powerful trio of Ladies who may to some ears sound too much like the Rheinmädchen and the more than capable forces of the Bayerischen Staatsoper and the Munich Philarmonic under the undervalued but masterly Fritz Rieger. And you have a unique and irreplaceable recording of the great work which some listeners will rediscover in a vibrant interpretation. That's how it should sound!
JFT
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