In advance of its release on September 13, the new Harmonia Mundi set of Mozart’s The Magic Flute is being supported by a special blog. Two episodes have been posted and the plans are to have a weekly blog until October 26 focusing on different elements of the opera and its production.

The recording continues René Jacobs’s Award-winning Mozart series which now includes the three Da Ponte collaborations (Le nozze di Figaro was voted Gramophone’s Recording of the Year in 2004), Idomeneo and La clemenza di Tito (chosen as the version to have in the Gramophone Collection in October). Jacobs argues in an extensive article in the new set that The Magic Flute is a “Hörspiel with music, a play for listening”, and the recording places great emphasis on the spoken text and on the sound effects that support the drama. 

Episode 1 on the blog focuses on Papageno (sung on the recording by Daniel Schmutzhard), and Episode 2 on Tamino (sung by Daniel Behle).

The Zauberflöte blog-site is available in English, French and German, with a Japanese version following.

There's also a video trailer on YouTube.