Mozart: Die Zauberflöte [The Magic Flute] (Complete Opera recorded in 1964) [3 LP]

Mozart's friend, the theatre manager and actor Emanuel Schikaneder, wrote the libretto for The Magic Flute basing it on an oriental tale called Lulu and incorporating freemasonry into his story. The exotic entertainment was first performed in September 1791, in Vienna, two months before Mozart's death.

Otto Klemperer's classic recording was made in London in March & April 1964 with a handpicked cast, which EMI's Walter Legge declared to be 'as perfect as the world's resources could yield'. A producer who casts the principal roles from strength and then has Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Christa Ludwig and Marga Höffgen in reserve for the Three Ladies is entitled to make such a claim.

Klemperer was in awe of Mozart's glorious succession of arias and ensembles - 'How can an interpretation convey such perfection?' he asked - yet in this recording, newly remastered at Abbey Road Studios for this reissue, his interpretation came as near to that perfection as any in the history of the gramophone.