Mozart: Die Zauberflöte (In French) - Gedda, Michaeu, Robin, Arié, Germain, Duval; Sébastian. Paris, 1954
$24.95
Description:
A young Nicolai Gedda shines as the standout of this performance, delivering a flawless masterclass in how a tenor should sing Mozart. Though her career largely remained within France, Janine Micheau demonstrates a world-class command of Mozart's style and technique. Mado Robin impresses as the Queen of the Night and clearly emerges as an audience favorite. While she flawlessly executes the most challenging parts of the role, she falls short of fully conveying the character's menace. Raffaele Arié makes some adjustments to avoid the lowest notes of his range, but his poised and effective portrayal of Sarastro more than compensates for this. Denise Duval adds charm with a delightful cameo as Papagena.
In Mono
OD 12169-3
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Too Much Dialogue
I was looking forward to this interesting performance of Magic Flute in French. I am sorry to say I was disappointed because of too much dialogue. I should have suspected something was up when it was listed as 3 discs: most Magic Flutes are 2 full discs. The extra dialogue wound not be as much of a problem if it was separately tracked-it is not. So, 3 minute arias last almost 6 minutes because of the extra dialogue. That is very hard to take when listening without seeing the opera. If that problem was fixed, this would be an interesting performance. The sound is much better than I expected for a live performance from 1954. The voices are also very high caliber with young Gedda a fine Tamino and Micheau a very fine Pamina. Sebastian lingers a little longer than I am used to having heard many of the newer recordings-he is almost Klemperer-like in his pacing. I don't mind that in order to hear the beauty of Mozart's music. If I can only figure a way to limit the dialogue, I will listen to this more often. So, it's hard for me to fully recommend this performance although I feel I should to hear fine Mozart singing. I give it a qualified recommendation.