As with Klemperer’s Fidelio, this live performance from Covent Garden – which now appears on disc for the first time – preceded a studio recording with the Philharmonia. But whereas the studio Fidelio retained some of the spoken dialogue, Die Zauberflöte, with a completely new cast, was issued with no dialogue at all. It’s wonderful, with the Three Ladies led by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, and the Queen of the Night of one’s dreams in Lucia Popp, but it’s no drama. Here we have the real theatrical experience.

It’s not perfect, of course. Klemperer’s speeds, which are much as on the later recording, caused problems here and there: most notably in the choral ‘O Isis und Osiris’, where the orchestra and the chorus are at odds. David Kelly gets behind for a moment in his ‘O Isis’ and struggles a bit in ‘In diesen heil’gen Hallen’, while Joan Sutherland is ahead of the beat in her first aria; but it’s really not too serious. It would be a mistake to assume that Klemperer is always slow: there’s a delightful bounce to the Allegro of the Overture (with a splendidly brassy coda), and the duet for Pamina and Papageno flows beautifully.

Sutherland makes a disappointing Queen: both her arias are transposed down, and ‘Der Hölle Rache’ is clumsy. On the other hand, Joan Carlyle never puts a foot wrong. She is heartfelt in ‘Ach, ich fühl’s’, impassioned when about to kill herself, rapturous when put straight by the Three Boys. The booklet-note by Tony Locantro (who was in the audience) doesn’t mention David Kelly, but his Sarastro is noble, secure even at the bottom of his range. The Speaker is Hans Hotter, in excellent voice.

Above all, we have Richard Lewis and Geraint Evans. Lewis sings a lovely, ardent Portrait aria and makes the exchange with the Speaker one of the highlights of the performance: despairing at ‘So ist denn alles Heuchelei’ where Nicolai Gedda on the studio recording is outraged. Evans, in complete command of the audience, is funny and touching. The track list needs amending to credit the unmistakable voice of John Dobson in the dialogue. Excellent sound. I listened with a smile on my face and a tear in my eye; there should have been a rainbow.