Die Zauberflöte

By the time of this March 4, 1967, broadcast, Rudolf Bing, then in his 17th season as the Met’s general manager, had already made Die Zauberflöte a consistent presence in the company’s repertoire. Post-war audiences had begun to fully embrace not only the greatness of Mozart’s operas, but also a new purity and attention to musical style in their performance. With that in mind, Bing brought in the great Mozart stylist Josef Krips for a belated Met debut to conduct a cast of American-born Met stalwarts. Soprano Judith Raskin, already admired by Met audiences, sang her first performances as Pamina while tenor George Shirley, a Met regular since his 1961 debut, had sung Tamino with the company twice before. Baritone Theodor Uppman’s portrayal of the bird catcher Papageno was praised by the New York Times as “a simple, boyish, lighthearted character, vocally congenial.” Soprano Roberta Peters was an explosive Queen of the Night and bass John Macurdy sang the first of his many Met performances as Sarastro.