composed in 1791, and unique because it's one of the only works Mozart composed to german text. the libretto was written by emanuel schikaneder. it was his last really major work, produced in vienna.
i don't really want to focus on plot synopsis, so we'll just dive right in to the actual overture.
levine has near perfected the art of opera, and is one of the most consistent big name maestros for the form today. this is a rather beefy version. he also looks incurably goofy (i cannot be the only one who wants to laugh when i see the cue right before the first note), but it cannot be disputed he gets the job done.
the first few chords are always done differently. the pickup is actually written as a sixteenth, but they're usually so heavy that they sound like something different. in any case: these chords are like a foundation - they set up a "realm," both tonal and emotional, within which the opera resides: graceful yet grand, dramatic and delicate. or as dale put it more poetically, "it's like describing eden." and indeed the whole overture of an opera is all about setting up a musical stage. the rest of the overture uses mainly just one brisk theme of eighths and sixteenths, which is developed in a fugal form. a brief middle section begins with a sort of reprise of the opening chords in the dominant major, B flat. a minor section which develops the sole theme with more fugal interplay gets furious and dramatic but remains light. a truly mozartean ring around the circle of fifths leads us to a fake recap which dissolves into a series of descending scales, and then back to the theme for the real recap.
notice the fantastic brass fanfares in the coda ;)
just for reference, you can also check out the muti/vpo one - i won't host it here because i think it's quite similar to the levine, except perhaps a bit more delicate and "classy." it is nice because you can see the orchestra for most of it, ionno about that bg picture though :D
here's something very different.
a perfect example of what i was talking about with the opening sixteenth notes. abbado decides to take them pretty much in time, and doesn't stretch the half notes *or* the fermatas. the opening is muuuch brisker than you hear normally, and the overall sound is thinner - almost as if he's trying to go for a period feel with the modern orchestra. lots of decay on longer notes, super short chords, and generally everyone is playing quite light even for this overture. it's also quite a bit faster, clocking in at over half a minute shorter than levine or muti (in a 7 minute piece, nontrivial). i enjoy this though. very unsentimental, but classy.
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