Note to IMDb editors: Jan-Hendrik Rootering's role is NOT, as you have listed it, "Narrator". He plays a real character, and his character is called "Speaker of the Temple", or just "Speaker", or sometimes, "An Old Priest". He does not narrate and he does not speak (so "Speaker" is misleading in this regard); he SINGS recitatif ("recitatif" means not an aria nor set-piece, but operatically-sung dialog, punctuated with chords and occasional riffs from the orchestra.)

His character is critical to the plot: he is the one who first tells Tamino that Sarastro is a good-guy, not an evil demon. He also tells Tamino that women are not trustworthy, and thereby begins Tamino's conversion to the masculine religion of Sarastro and the Temple of Wisdom. This is key, because the women represent Catholicism, which (according to this opera) mankind must pass through and eventually destroy, in order to achieve enlightenment and become good rationalistic Freemasons like Mozart and Schickenaeder. Sarastro and his Priests represent Freemasons; Freemasons saw themselves as contemporary counterparts to the Egyptians who designed the Pyramids, realizing geometric principles in the real world, thereby making "the Earth into a Heavenly kingdom, and mortals like the gods."

So please, change the cast-list to show that Rootering's character is "Speaker of the Temple of Wisdom" or just "Speaker" or "An Old Priest." Not "Narrator".

Thanks, from me and from other MAGIC FLUTE junkies!

UPDATE, August 2017: Aha, I see you have made the adjustment. Thanks!

Now, a review:

This is a magnificent performance, both visually and musically, in too many ways to list. I'll just mention a few points:

1. The lesser roles--the Three Ladies, the priests and Armed Men, Monostatos, the Speaker of the Temple, Papagena, etc. are filled by first-rate singing actors. Celebrity value is added by the presence of elderly long-time veteran Kurt Böhme, who was first recorded singing in this opera in 1941! Here he has a speaking-only role as the priest who berates Papageno for being such a schnook.

2. Kurt Moll was the preeminent Sarastro in the 1980s and 1990s. No one else in those decades had his special combination of mellow, golden tone, extreme range (especially the low range), vocal heft, and musicality. (Well, there was one less well-known almost-equally good bass: the great Hans Sotin.) Visually and dramatically, Kurt Moll is benevolent but unsettling, like Aslan in the Narnia books: so noble and virtuous that he makes you uneasy about how virtuous YOU are. No surprise that James Levine cast him in his videoed performance at the Met several years later.

3. Lucia Popp, besides being an outstanding musician, has the unusual gift of being able to make herself sound, and act, like a little girl. This is an absolute requirement for the role of Pamina; too many Paminas have the musicality and vocal ability but sound like mature women. Kathleen Battle, for instance, fails miserably in the little-girl department. (The love between Pamina and Tamino is supposed to be more like when kindergarten-age children say they have "boyfriends" or "girlfriends" than like a grown-up relationship.)

4. WEAKNESSES of this performance include Edita Gruberova's Queen: she's fine musically but not a great actress and no fun to look at, and Wolfgang Brendel's vulgar, unappealing Papageno. Francisco Ariza's performance as Tamino is workmanlike and reasonably sincere but not remarkable.

5. Sets and costumes by August Everding are traditional and very beautiful.

6. The short duet just before the Act 2 Quintet, where two priests warn Tamino and Papageno to beware of women's tricks, is cut.