Daniel Behle (Tamino), Marlis Petersen (Pamina), Daniel Schmutzhard (Papageno), Sunhae Im (Papagena), Anna-Kristiina Kaappola (Königin der Nacht), Marcos Fink (Sarastro), Kurt Azesberger (Monostatos)Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs
Harmonia Mundi · HMC902068/70 · 2 hours 46 minutes
René Jacobs treats Die Zauberflöte like a piece of theatre rather than a concert in costume, and you can hear it in every spoken transition and every impish orchestral flourish underneath the dialogue. The cast leans young and vivid rather than grand and stately, with Daniel Behle’s Tamino sounding genuinely bewildered by the world he’s stumbled into and Daniel Schmutzhard’s Papageno full of real comic timing rather than routine shtick. It’s the kind of recording that makes you forget you’re listening to a studio account at all — closer to eavesdropping on a story than sitting through an opera.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 13th September 2010
- Sunday Times — 2010 — Albums of the Year
- Gramophone Awards — 2011 — Finalist – Opera
- BBC Music Magazine — November 2010 — Opera Choice
“…this is a total experience, perfectly tailored for private listening. René Jacobs thinks of it as a Hörspiel: it’s a play to be heard – I don’t know a recorded Zauberflöte more thrillingly…”
— BBC Music Magazine, November 2010,5 out of 5 stars
René Pape (Sarastro), Erika Miklósa (Königin der Nacht), Dorothea Röschmann (Pamina), Christoph Strehl (Tamino), Hanno Müller-Brachmann (Papageno), Julia Kleiter (Papagena), Georg Zeppenfeld (Sprecher), Kurt Azesberger (Monostatos), Caroline Stein (Erste Dame), Heidi Zehnder (Zweite Dame), Anne-Carolyn…
Deutsche Grammophon · 4775789 · 2 hours 28 minutes
What sells this Zauberflöte is the sheer evenness of the cast — there’s no weak link to shrug off, which is rare in an opera that asks so much of so many singers at once. René Pape’s Sarastro has that effortless granite warmth, Röschmann’s Pamina aches in exactly the right places, and Erika Miklósa nails those stratospheric Queen of the Night lines with real venom rather than just accuracy. Claudio Abbado conducts it all with a lightness that never tips into cuteness, letting Mozart’s mix of comedy and something stranger breathe on its own terms.
Awards:
- Gramophone Awards — 2006 — Finalist
- BBC Music Magazine — June 2006 — Disc of the month
- Record Review — December 2006 — Critics Disc of the Year
- Gramophone Magazine — June 2006 — Editor’s Choice
“This is certainly the most desirable version using modern instruments to appear since Solti’s second recording in 1990. That said, its characteristics are rather nearer William Christie’s 1995…”
— Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010
Klaus Florian Vogt (Tamino), Christiane Karg (Pamina), Rolando Villazón (Papageno), Regula Mühlemann (Papagena), Franz-Josef Selig (Sarastro), Albina Shagimuratova (Königin der Nacht), Paul Schweinester (Monostatos)RIAS Kammerchor, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Deutsche Grammophon · 4836400 · 2 hours 14 minutes
Casting Rolando Villazón as Papageno is the kind of idea that shouldn’t work on paper but turns out to be the whole reason to hear this set — he brings a rumpled, funny humanity to the role that reminds you Papageno is the audience’s way into this strange fairy tale, not just comic relief between the arias. Klaus Florian Vogt’s Tamino floats above it all with that uncannily bright, boyish tone he’s known for, and Nézet-Séguin keeps the Chamber Orchestra of Europe light on its feet without ever letting the opera’s stranger, more ritualistic moments lose their weight. It’s a Zauberflöte that trusts the piece’s oddness instead of smoothing it over.
Awards:
- International Classical Music Awards — 2019 — Nominee – Opera
- Opus Klassik Awards — 2020 — Nominee – Male Singer of the Year (Villazón)
“Vogt shows no signs of lightening an oversized voice. In fact, it is impossible to guess that he isn’t a fresh young lyric tenor. By what vocal magic this was accomplished is beyond me, but…”
— Fanfare, January/February 2020
Juan Diego Flórez (tenor)Orchestra La Scintilla, Riccardo Minasi
Sony · 88985430862 · 51 minutes
Flórez singing Mozart is one of those pairings that feels almost inevitable once you hear it — the voice has exactly the agility and sweetness these roles demand, but by this point in his career he’s also found a depth that his earlier, purely dazzling recordings didn’t quite have. Orchestra La Scintilla plays on period instruments with a lightness that lets him spin those long phrases without ever feeling rushed, and Minasi shapes the accompaniments with real theatrical instinct rather than just keeping time. It’s the kind of disc where the technical fireworks are almost beside the point, because what actually lingers is how much character he finds in the quieter, more reflective moments.
Awards:
- Presto Editor’s Choice — October 2017
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2017
- International Opera Awards — 2018 — Nominated – Solo Recital
- Opera — February 2018 — Recording of the Month
“What does stand out…is the mature warmth of musico-dramatic approach informing both singing and characterisation…His combination of technical brilliance and imaginative sentience, of long-breathed…”
— BBC Music Magazine, February 2018,5 out of 5 stars
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Maria Stader, Rita Streich, Kim BorgBerlin RIAS Orchestra, Ferenc Fricsay
Deutsche Grammophon · 4761752 · 2 hours 22 minutes
There’s something almost impossibly right about Fricsay’s touch here — he lets the fairy-tale logic of the piece breathe without ever letting it turn twee, and the Berlin RIAS players respond with a lightness that still has real weight underneath it. Fischer-Dieskau’s Papageno is the real revelation, sung with a wit and tenderness that most baritones can’t manage alongside their more “serious” repertoire, and Rita Streich’s Queen of the Night has a crystalline precision that never sounds effortful. It’s the kind of cast where every voice feels perfectly matched to its role, which for an opera this beloved and this often recorded is no small thing.
Awards:
- Penguin Guide — Rosette
Sabine Devieilhe (soprano)Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon
Erato · 2564601625 · 72 minutes
Mozart wrote for the Weber sisters the way a lover writes letters — each aria shaped around a specific voice, a specific set of quirks and strengths, so what you get here is really a portrait gallery of four different women he was infatuated with or married into. Sabine Devieilhe has exactly the right instrument for this: bright, agile, capable of turning on a dime from coloratura fireworks to something aching and plain. Pichon and Pygmalion give her the kind of alert, theatrical accompaniment that makes you remember these concert arias are basically mini-operas in disguise.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 20th November 2015
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2015
- Gramophone Awards — 2016 — Winner – Recital
“the concert-aria and operatic readings themselves are gems, each one thrown off with a splendid combination of technical brilliance, musicianly assurance and tonal sweetness, and impeccably…”
— BBC Music Magazine, February 2016
Günther Groissböck (Sarastro), Saimir Pirgu (Tamino), Albina Shagimuratova (Queen of the Night), Genia Kühmeier (Pamina), Ailish Tynan (Papagena), Alex Esposito (Papageno) & Peter Bronder (Monostatos)Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala & Choir of the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala, Roland…
Opus Arte · OABD7099D
Die Zauberflöte lives or dies on tone — get the balance between fairy tale and philosophy wrong and it either turns twee or ponderous, and this cast seems to understand that instinctively. Alex Esposito’s Papageno is the real draw here, all comic mischief and genuine warmth without ever tipping into shtick, while Shagimuratova nails those stratospheric Queen of the Night lines with real menace behind them. Groissböck brings a surprising humanity to Sarastro too, which makes the whole moral universe of the opera feel less like a lecture and more like something worth believing in.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — May 2012 — Blu-ray of the Month
- BBC Music Magazine — April 2012 — DVD & Blu-ray Choice
“This is a wonderful performance…I was more moved and enchanted by this than by any other Magic Flute I have seen on DVD…[Esposito’s Papageno] sung with glorious abandon, while his acting…”
— BBC Music Magazine, April 2012
