Alert, bright playing, total professionalism, an idiomatic way and comfort with the score–it’s amazing how little these things matter when inspiration and great (or appropriate) voices are missing, as they are on this 1955 Magic Flute. Ferenc Fricsay seems very much the routinier here, making certain that things go right, that tempos never lag, that singers are engaged. But there’s no charm. Ernst Haefliger is similarly charmless, though his singing is never less than good. Maria Stader, as Pamina, sounds old enough to be her mother’s (Rita Streich’s sparkling Queen of the Night) mother, but again the singing is just fine. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is less academic than he’d later become as Papageno, and his voice is in its best shape. As Sarastro, Josef Greindl lacks stature, doesn’t always sing on key, and sounds about 40 minutes from retirement. The orchestral playing is everything but interesting, the sound is too shiny, and the voices too in-your-face. Dialogue is kept to a minimum and is spoken by a separate group of performers. Skip this. [12/16/2001]
