5/5 Stunning in its entirety
  by Robert A. Valentine (Atlanta, GA)
Sir Colin Davis has done it again! The genius has made another beautiful interpretation of the one of Mozart's final pieces. The cast is magnificent, especially Diana Damaru as the Queen of the Night (my reason for the purchase). Both the set and lighting design are stunning. The cinematography is tasteful, in that you see the production as both a movie and a staged opera (or Singspiel). I have no complaints at all about this dvd!

Excellent work!!!

1/5 No Magic Here
  by S. Strasser (New Jersey)
What a disappointment! The movie "Amadeus," offered a brief view of what could be done with colorful costuming and imaginative sets. This performance not only lacks any visual excitement, it is positively proletarian drab. Even the Metropolitan Opera's tired setting looks good in comparison. "Amadeus" gave us a glorious children's version of The Magic Flute and on any level Mozart created an enchanting comedic yet profound opera. What we get here is Dullsville. You wonder why they bothered with HD!

5/5 Excellent performance!
  by Gillian Buchanan (London, UK)
This is a really good performance of the opera. It's sung in German and done "modern style" and is still very enjoyable. I found Will Hartmann to be a little elderly for the part of Tamino, who needs the inexperience of youth to really fill the role, but his voice is gorgeous. The Queen of the Night hits that top F with no problem at all and sings the arias with plenty of drama and clarity particularly in the coloratura, and although the three boy's voices are a little dry they're still excellent singers. Monostatos is particularly good in this performance - it's a part which is often less well sung than some of the other roles, but here he's top notch.

The Papageno is also excellent and compares well with the Bergman film from Drottningholm in the 1970s and also with Benjamin Luxon's version of the character in the late 70s/early 80s. I loved the puppet bird that he had to catch during his first aria (when he does the belly flop at the end and slides across the stage), and the masks of the animals when Tamino charms them in the woods are superb. The only thing that spoiled the performance for me was that the make-up and hairstyles for the Three Ladies and Queen of the Night is very unflattering and in close up filming doesn't work that well.

All in all this is most enjoyable and well deserving of five stars.

5/5 outstanding ...
  by M. Michel Landaret (STRASBOURG, FRANCE)
This performance is exceptionnal ; Papageno, Sarastro and the queen of the night performs superbly ; especially the queen of the night : in her most well-known aria, she manages litterally to radiate hate, and she's served by a perfectly mastered voice. I have 7 different versions of "Zauberflöte" ; this one is THE one. Plus, of course, the benefits of HD, biut even without HD it would have been outstanding.

For people who hates opera, or simply if it is your 1st time as an opera lover, try this one. Really.

4/5 Wonderful sound, video is less than stellar
  by Justin Young (Austin, TX)
The sound is wonderful - whether two channel (preferred) or surround. It is a music lover's delight. The video is not so good. It is slightly better than what you would see on cable. The shots are soft. The video doesn't wow the viewer like a HD-DVD should. Get "Die Fledermaus" or "A Midsummer Night's Dream" instead.