Mozart Die Zauberflöte opera to a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. Directed 2013 by Robert Carsen at the Baden-Baden Easter Festival. Stars Pavol Breslik (Tamino), Kate Royal (Pamina), Dimitry Ivashchenko (Sarastro), Ana Durlovski (Queen of the Night), Michael Nagy (Papageno), Regula Mühlemann (Papagena), Annick Massis (1st Lady), Magdalena Kožená (2nd Lady), Nathalie Stutzmann (3rd Lady), José van Dam (Speaker), James Elliott (Monostatos), Andreas Schager (1st Priest), Jonathan Lemalu (Second Priest), Benjamin Hulett (1st Armoured Man), David Jerusalem (2nd Armoured Man), and David Rother, Cedric Schmitt, and Joshua Augustin, all soloists of the Aurelius Sängerknaben Calw (Three Boys). Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Rundfunkchor Berlin (Chorus Master Simon Halsey). Set design by Michael Levine; costume design by Petra Reinhardt; lighting design by Robert Carsen and Peter van Praet; visuals by Martin Eidenberger; dramatury by Ian Burton. Directed for TV by Olivier Simonnet. Sung in German. Released 2013, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA
Richard Lawrence, writing for Gramophone (December 2013, page 101) generally praises this production while warning us that director Carsen can't resist tinkering with the plot (making, for example, the Queen of the Night into an ally of Sarastro). Later, Opera News calls this one of the 5 best opera Blu-rays they reviewed in 2014. (January 2015, at page 51)
The PR folks for the Berlin Phil have given us some screenshots that we can use until we do a full review of this title. Here's Tamino, Papageno, and the Three Ladies:
Papageno close-in (this shot is also on the keepcase back):
Instead of wine and bread, Papageno gets water and a stone:
Tamino's vision of Pamina:
Blindfolded, Tamino undergoes a trial:
Here’s a trailer from the Berliner Philharmoniker: