Ferenc Fricsay's The Magic Flute from 1955 is one of the first great recordings of the work, and it remains a compelling listen today.
Rita Streich's Queen of the Night can be considered one of the best ever: crystal clear in tone, fiery in mood, and rock solid on the all-important high notes. A 30-year-old
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau makes an agreeably youthful Papageno, singing with personality and lyricism.
Maria Stader's Pamina is lighter in voice than most on record, but very convincing. And
Ernst Haefliger brings youthful intensity to the role of Tamino.
Josef Greindl has the right weight and gravity for the vocally low-lying Sarastro, but he frequently sings under pitch and allows long melodic lines to lose their intensity. The secondary players, including Martin Vantin as a freakishly sotto voce Monostatos, all deliver solid performances.
Fricsay's tempos and approach to the orchestra are ahead of their time, rarely dragging or sounding overdone. One strange aspect of the recording is that each of the main characters' dialogue is voiced by a separate actor, rather than the singer, resulting in a jarring vocal discontinuity between sung and spoken scenes. The sound is what you'd expect from 1955: rather distant and lacking in depth. For that reason, this will probably appeal only to collectors and students of the opera.