Mozart: Die Singspiele (The Magic Flute & The Abduction from the Seraglio)

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 alive... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2010, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 27th Jan 2023
Catalogue No: HMX290404145
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Series: Jacobs Mozart Operas

Presto Recording of the Week

13th September 2010
Building a Library

November 2010

Recommended Recording (Die Zauberflöte)
Sunday Times

2010

Albums of the Year (Die Zauberflöte)
Gramophone Awards

2011

Finalist - Opera (Die Zauberflöte)
BBC Music Magazine

November 2010

Opera Choice (Die Zauberflöte)
Record Review

December 2010

Critics' Disc of the Year (Die Zauberflöte)
Gramophone Magazine

Awards Issue 2010

Editor's Choice (Die Zauberflöte)
Presto Recordings of the Year

Finalist 2015

(Die Entführung)
BBC Music Magazine Awards

2011

Winner - Opera (Die Zauberflöte)

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Mozart: Die Zauberflöte, K620

Daniel Behle (Tamino), Marlis Petersen (Pamina), Daniel Schmutzhard (Papageno), Anna-Kristiina Kaappola (Königin der Nacht), Marcos Fink (Sarastro), Sunhae Im (Papagena), Kurt Azesberger (Monostatos), Konstantin Wolff (Sprecher), Inga Kalna (Erste Dame), Anna Grevelius (Zweite Dame), Isabelle Druet (Dritte Dame), Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin (early music ensemble)
RIAS Kammerchor
René Jacobs

Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail, K384

Robin Johannsen (Konstanze), Mari Eriksmoen (Blondchen), Maximilian Schmitt (Belmonte), Julian Prégardien (Pedrillo), Dimitry Ivashchenko (Osmin), Cornelius Obonya (Bassa Selim), Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
RIAS Kammerchor
René Jacobs

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Recording of the Week, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte from René Jacobs

13th September 2010

Following his excellent series of the Mozart/Da Ponte operas, Jacobs presents a vibrant new recording of the late mystical singspiel, with a uniformly excellent cast headed by the young German lyric tenor Daniel Behle as Tamino.

The alpha and omega of Mozart.

With Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782), probably his first absolute masterpiece, and Die Zauberflöte (1791 - the year of his death), René Jacobs penetrates to the heart of Mozartian singspiel. Featuring singers, a chorus and an orchestra ideally suited to the works, these two complete recordings are now among the benchmarks of the discography.

Reviews

November 2010

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 alive with fantasy, profoundly musical imagination, real magic, and real fun too.

25th August 2010

With a generally youthful cast boasting some lovely voices, the music is equally captivating. Jacobs is all about excitement and making the most of orchestral detail...Full of surprises, Jacobs’s account is a real game-changer: we will never listen to this multi-faceted masterpiece in the same way again.

11th September 2010

fresh, lively, quick-witted – and characteristically full of liberties...The solo singing is impeccably schooled and dramatically believable...Daniel Schmutzhard makes the most of his Viennese Papageno. Daniel Behle is the thoughtful Tamino, Marlis Petersen a virginal Pamina.

Awards Issue 2010

As ever, Jacobs favours lively speeds, light articulation and pungent, colourful textures...I suspect I shall reach for this new recording as often as any, for its bubbling, crackling theatricality and an eager, yet unforced, sense of fun that never short-changes the opera's central message of human enlightenment.

November 2015

Jacobs has put so much thought into realising [Die Entführung] for a home audio audience ... central to his success is the way he brings the dialogue – almost all of it – to pulsing dramatic life...The singing is mostly very good. Maximilian Schmitt brings his usual golden tone to Belmonte...it’s two thumbs up for this release.

February 2016

[Jacobs's] Entführung unfolds with potent theatrical energy. It aims to entertain, to bring the situations to continuously animated life...I found it an uninterrupted pleasure to listen to the aria singing of Robin Johannsen's bright-toned, intensely involved heroine and still more to the fresh-voiced, long-phrasing, authentically musical Belmonte of Maximilian Schmitt, the bright light among German Mozart tenors.February 2016

19th September 2010

Some of his tempi and abrupt gear changes will disturb purist Mozartians, but his youthful cast gives huge pleasure: Marlis Petersen’s radiant Pamina, Daniel Behle’s lyrical, aristocratic Tamino and Daniel Schmutzhard’s garrulous Papageno are among the finest sung on disc, and Anna-Kristiina Kappola’s steely-toned Queen of the Night doesn’t miss a stitch in her coloratura runs.

9th September 2010

The star is tenor Daniel Behle, whose Tamino is the finest on disc since Fritz Wunderlich. Jacobs opts on occasion for exaggerated speeds, whether fast or slow. The playing is excellent.

9th September 2010

The principal singers inhabit their roles as persuasively as possible for such an absurdly mythopoeic fairytale, with Daniel Behle a noble Tamino and baritone Daniel Schmutzhard particularly effective as Papageno.

The Daily Telegraph 13th September 2010

From the violently arresting opening chords of the overture, it is clear this Die Zauberflöte is not going to be routine...but to anyone who feels that they know the opera inside out, it’s an exhilarating wake-up call...the entire cast sings with meticulous musicality, and the RIAS Chamber Choir and Akademie für Alte Musik could hardly be bettered.

Opera Now

[there is a] real liveliness to the performance [of Die Entführung], aided by a youthful cast and Jacob’s pacey conducting, which draws full spice from the orientalism of the score … a set well worth investigating … it boasts a committed and homogenous cast, a sense of happy music-making and an abundance of charm

Classic FM November 2010

There's much to savour in the individual performances here, with often-sublime singing.

Mozart: Die Singspiele (The Magic Flute & The Abduction from the Seraglio)

5 CDs

Contents

Recording of the Week, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte from René Jacobs

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