10 Influential Albums: #2: Karl Bohm's Recording of Mozart's Die Zauberflote

I first heard this in high school and it was the first opera I heard that I loved. I was in an opera appreciation class and my recollection is that the teacher did nothing but hand out vocal scores and play the records. He never told us about any of the operas, never explained the plots. We just listened. I learned more from this non-teaching than I ever could have learned from explanations because I was given the tools to appreciate the music (the score and a time to listen to a recording) but was left to find out what I loved and hated.

And Die Zauberflöte was love at first sight. I went home and told my parents how much I loved this piece. A few days later, my mother bought me the Bohm recording which I believe is the same one I listened to in class.

This opera, with its combination of soaring melodies, humor, and woo-woo mysticism tempered by an affectionate skepticism, is, for me, the pinnacle of Mozart (I’d add also Figaro, Giovanni, the G minor Quintet, and K. 466). And this recording is terrific.