There are opera buffs who will not tolerate an opera sung in anything but its original language. What a pity - they miss out on so much wonderful singing and interpretation! This enchanting performance is sung in very piquant French and is most charming.All of the singers are first-rate. Micheau sings Pamina's big aria with melting beauty while Gedda shows his linguistic skill by singing and speaking in excellent French (he also sang Tamino in German, English, and Italian, perhaps other languages as well). Germain is a lovable Papageno as is Duval as Papagena, both audience favorites. Robin nails all of the Queen's high staccati. I must admit to being a little disappointed that she was overcome with Good Taste and refrained from interpolating any of her notorious B-flats above high C! Arié's smooth-as-silk bass-baritone is almost ideal for Sarastro though he avoids the low F in the first act finale. The supporting cast is equally good as is Sébastian's leadership. The dialogue is spoken with vivacity and is never dull. The announcer sometimes speaks over the music in order to describe the scene to the radio audience, similar to how Milton Cross used to occasionally break in on the old Met broadcasts.The sound is very clear, the pitch of the tape correct. If you love Die Zauberflöte, give La Flûte Enchanté a chance!

This is a broadcast in very good sound of a first-night performance of a new Flûte enchantée at the Opéra Garnier in Paris, when there still was a resident company and most things were performed in French. The sound and diction are good enough to let you catch most words, but my French is just a bit too weak to understand everything. But it seems Schikaneder's original is followed quite closely, and I like to hear this generation of singers handle their language. The exception of course is Gedda, who just two years after his Stockholm debut seems totally integrated in the company. It had been a phenomenal year for him with several important debuts, EMI recordings, and three new roles at the Paris Opéra where he will remain for a couple of more years. I think he also married and had a daughter, moved into a villa and might have become a Frenchman.This was a lavish production, where interesting things happen like the audience covering the orchestral introduction to the Queen of the Night's first aria because the scenery is changed - we hear that loud noise also, like in many other scene changes which the RTF announcer explains over the music. The Queen is Mado Robin, sounding smaller than expected as the good recording gives us a realistic perspective. And when she comes as to admonish her daughter in act 2 she sounds like a small girl in the dialogue. She is rather good for a live QofN, and it's the first time I heard anyone hold the high F in the first aria for display!Micheau is affecting as Pamina, and especially heard as it were from the stalls she sound fresher than when she recorded her aria in German for a recital LP five (or so) years later. Others are not memorable.A very long cast-list in Wolff's catalogue of Paris Opera performances includes Claude Hector as "L'orateur" which must be "Der Sprecher", while the CD has Pierre Froumenty in this role. Wolff lists him as just "un prêtre", but as Froumenty was a senior and more important singer I don't know what to believe. If you're interested in French singers of that time do look up the complete list. For instance, Monostatos is the black tenor Charles Holland who had a long and interesting career, and there are other names I recognize from French 1950s recordings. The opera could (just) have been accomodated on two CDs, but that would have required a break seven minutes into act 2 so I like it this way. Orchestral playing and tempi are quite good, with nice woodwinds. I did not notice any cuts except that "Bewahret euch vor Weibers Tücken" was played just by the orchestra, letting the two priests rest.

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.