Mozart.
"Die Zauberflote".
Text Emanuel Schikaneder.
Pamina, Barbara Hendricks.
Tamino, Jerry Hadley.
Papageno, Thomas Allen.
Sarastro, Robert Lloyd.
Queen of the night, June Anderson.
Papagena Ulrike Steinsky.
Monostasos, Helmut Wildhaber.
Scottish Chamber Orchestra & Choir/Charles Mackerras.
To begin with, this recording made in 1991 by Jack Renner for Teldec in Edinburgh, is not good at all. The orchestra sounds fine enough, well placed in the venue, but the singers and choir at all, are far to much on the foreground, and that leads to saturation of the microphones, and as a result clogged up voice explosions. Really nasty that. Right in the beginning when the Three ladies come up, with the line "Stirb ungeheuer" I actually froze on the spot, because of the combined ugly sound. This tendency emerges throughout the recording from beginning to end. A shame really.
And it must be said not all singers were in good feathers on this ill conceived recording, Hendricks sounds oddly out of focus, and Hadley, allthough a fine singer, seems to be in two minds how to approach Tamino.
The light in all this is the fine contribution by Thomas Allen, that makes a fine Papageno, his voice is a constant joy. June Anderson surprised me by her sometimes brittle voice, but also the problems she had with her high notes, squeezed out at great pains.The three ladies are fine in speech, but bound together in duets, they pained my ears frequently, especially Gabriele Sima, and Julia Bernheimer, unhealthy vibrato, which tended to diminish to voice of the first lady, Petra Maria Schnitzer.
The tempi of the orchestra were fast, to fast at times as in the Overture.
As to the music, I think its just beautiful, and if I did not enjoy the singing, the music was a constant delight.
Therefore I would love to get some good recommendations concerning the Zauberflote, for I will have a good recording of it.
One final remark has to be addressed to the woefully inadequate libretti provided with this box. You better understand German, for a lot of the text is not what is sung. they left about 50 % of the material out.
A shame on the production team of Joan Records.
This one will go straight in the refuse bin.