Word: pamina
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...outfit. He was presently joined by the Queen of the Night, who arrived in a carriage drawn by several men in tail coats and top hats. Thus prepared, the audience was scarcely surprised to see Sarastro roaming the Temple of Wisdom in a business suit, or later sitting on Pamina's bed in a modern bedroom while singing the famed aria In Diesen Heil'gen Hallen with its Masonic message of brotherly love. In the background loomed towers of concentration camps, cages filled with ballet dancers, and an assortment of plain kitchen chairs...
Mozart: The Magic Flute (RIAS Symphony Orchestra, chorus and soloists conducted by Ferenc Fricsay; Decca, 3 LPs). Despite its slightly studied style and rather tubby sound, this is the finest recording yet to appear of the 165-year-old masterpiece. Soprano Maria Stader makes Pamina a joy to the ear; Rita Streich is awesomely secure in the Queen of the Night's sky-high aerobatics, while the two leading men, Tenor Ernst Häfliger and Baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, use their handsome voices with distinction...
...handsome, slender performers. But their Juilliard-type excellence somehow did not thrill. Baritone Theodor Uppman tried hardest and succeeded best as Papageno, the comical birdman; partly thanks to Ruth and Thomas Martin's competent translation, he put across his role with almost Broadway-like punch. Soprano Lucine Amara (Pamina) sang beautifully, and Roberta Peters (Queen of the Night) did her bell-like best despite a cold. But Tenor Brian Sullivan (Tamino) was dry-voiced and stiff-backed; Basso Jerome Hines, while he hit all of Sarastro's low notes, failed to be really moving...