This is the first time I've ever seen the Queen show some compassion to her daughter during this scene. Amazing.

I have just started listening to opera seriously and I have to say I am just blown away by the caliber of talent amongst most opera "divas." Natalie Dessay is certainly at the top of that list!! Thanks so much for uploading this!! So much passion!

Wow, there's the color and musicality you seldom hear in this aria! She put uncharacteristic warmth and humanity into the role as well. Bravo! piece

This woman is GREAT! The first time ever I've been moved by this aria. She makes dramatic sense out of the coloratura. She's no. 1.

Haha, I love her for that! This is her comment on moving while singing: "Definitely, because if you want to sing without moving around, all you have to do is give concerts." It's from her interview with Operanet.

Perfect tempo and voice level....She is THE ONE~!!

I love Natalie Dessay! She is an amazing singer and what an energy! I love her voice her technique and interpretation. This is the best version since Christina Deutecom! And she was the best in my opinion! FANTASTIC NATALIE!!!!

I believe that it is the best interpretation of the queen of the night in the network. When I saw this Natalie's interpretation for the first time the eyes filled me with tears, I believe that it expresses pefectamente the surrealistic and emotional environment of this Mozar's aria. The best ;)

I love her "I... I can't even..." exit lol. I loved her performance.

Stop comparing Dessay and Damrau. They're both amazing.

The staccato is amazing... Insane Mozart

O M G !!! This is the most beautiful sound, gives me goose bumps, moves me to tears

Brava~! Dessay is my Favorite Queen of the night!

Oh dear! Dessay is the best Köning since Edita Gruberova! I've been waiting a new Köning for so long ! :D Dessay has also very good dramatic skills: she has created a strong character with convincing psychological aspects. And her voice has huge scale: she sings the high notes without difficulty or hoarseness (which is very common to other singer to this role..) Love her!!!!

Natalie Dessay es una soprano magnifica!!!! Que maravilla de cantante, una de las joyas de la opera mundial!

Dessay seems so genuinely furious and upset. I love he interpretation!

Love how rounded she is as a performer. And i looooove the costumes. The best I've seen around here for this opera.

After watching this video i have reconciliated with Dessay. I've always thought she is one of the greatest but too light-weight in the acting for this role. She is not the cruellest Queen of the night (Damrau is for sure) but i love the way she performs here. She is expressing the conflict of her wish for vengeance and her love as a mother. Brava Dessay!!

That moment at 0:55-1:00 is so timeless and so well-executed it makes me teary-eyed.

It seems to me that they tried to make the Queen of the Night a less cold character. I like it, it's more sentimental and natural than Damrau's.

Félicitation à toutes deux pour votre jeu. Vos prouesses vocales sont là de toute façon ! MERCI

One of the best performances of that piece I've seen so far

This is one the fastest tempos for this aria I've ever heard! Go Dessay!

Damrau's performance is absolutely the best. Not only because of her voice and acting but the whole production. Dessay is brilliant, but I like the savagery of Damrau. What I think is wonderful and awesome, that we can listen to these great divas, and argue about their excellence. They are all divine, I wish I could do one thing as brilliantly as they did.

So many shades and colours, apart from flawless technique and stunning musicality. She seems so genuine and so human and yet completely convincing in her role.! Brava!

I was first unnerved that all someone could come up with was "I like her better"... Then I watched and listened to a clip with her. ***WOW***. No comment - she's got it all, and more. Now I'm THANKFUL TO YOU for pointing her out to me !!!!!!

Superbe Natalie ! Une vraie actrice qui chante... c'est pour cela qu'on l'adore car elle rend à l'opéra toute sa dimension théâtrale !

Just unbelievable! I heared a lot of very good performances on this part of the "Zauberflöte" but she is really fantastic. great voice an additionally great acting!

I love this. Ranks among the very best. Great interpretation. Opera is musical theatre at its best. In all theatre, performers need to transport the hearts, minds, souls into an ecstatic virtual reality experience of the fantasy portrayed in the libretto. Singing, acting, charisma, involving the audience are all very important. It has to be a total experience. Opera requires very high standards of singing, but it cannot be effective unless it moves hearts and souls of the audience.

@daniloxx I remember reading somewhere that this is specifically Dessay's own interpretation on her part - she doesn't feel the Queen of the Night is a villain, and acts as such (as opposed to Damrau's version).

Fantastic! I've heard this aria from a lot of sopranos (Damrau, Serra, Moser, Devielhe, Deutekom and many others) but Dessay is by far the best: perfect pitch and brilliant tone in every single note and impressive acting.

Ok that was bizarre, hearing German, reading French an thinking in English. LOL

Amazing voice.I've seen a couple of different versions on stage, all very good....but this is simply ...WOW!

The best version on KZfaq, no doubt. Quite stunning that so much voice can emerge from someone so tiny. And unlike Damrau, she doesn't have to "assume the position" to hit those Cs. Just amazing.

Am I the only one who thinks this costume is utterly ridiculous and seems like it could be dyed red and used for a Queen of Hearts character ?

Absolutely stunning. Just an incrdible voice and superb acting too. OK she's not pure evil but she is believable and remember she is not trying to convince a stranger - but her own daughter so she plays on that. I think she's great. Thanks for the upload.

The thing she makes on 0:56 , that is amazing.

Though Dessay's acting leaves much to be desired, her impeccable voice, both nimble and effortless, shines brilliantly in this aria. My only complaint is that she performs it too sweetly. Stephie Pahlavi Zan

i agree! natalie dessay preforms this song in a different way than most other preformers do, and makes you think twice about the REAL intentions of the queen of the night! very cool!

My favorite version. Damrau creates a better and more menacing character, but she struggles too much with the high notes. Dessay sings them with such ease and perfection that it's just overwhelming.

wow, what a wonderful interpretation! i have never seen a mother in this legendary role. only shouting and showing off... that's the way IMHO Pamina's mother would sing this lyrics! bravo!!!

Love it, great to see that people still like music like this

I've always seen the QoN as having gone over the edge at this point of the opera. Nathalie's fluttering gestures and looking around during that first bout of high C's really caught it!

@reinehcreinehc I was in the opera house, I've always been a fan of the magic flute. Then the lead singer [I forget her name, I'm sorry] sings this aria. My hand to god, it felt like Mozart himself was talking to me. The best musical experience of my life. This is music for the ages.

Acho que foi a melhor intérprete dessa aria que eu já vi. Ela é excepcional!

Perfect. Sehr sauber Klang und Gesang. Vielen dank. Eine Freude zuzuhören

I just admire this women so much. Having to sing this difficult aria in front of a whole audience and cameras, carrying the weight of the whole thing, since people always expect to listen to a perfect rendition. They all deserve to be admire. If I had to stand on stage in front of an audience I could only get to fart at most, which I'd do surely, since I'd be dead nervous.

This is my favorite interpretation, due not only to the excellent singing, but also the singer's acting skill. Well done!

That's the second fragment of what looks like the same production that hits the right note with me. The french subtitles really helped me understand the german. Now I really understand why this should be a display of pain and torment. Well done!

...the best one i've found on youtube so far.

Guys, it's an opera. Not a musical, not a theatre, it's an opera, what means that the acting is not important, but the singing is. An aria is not a 'song', especially this one. It's an artistic masterpiece, so stop saying her acting isn't good.

Vocally I feel that Dessay nails the difficult coloratura but scoops a lot of the notes in other passages. Her acting talent, on the other hand, is unmatched and is powerful storytelling at its finest. If we could have a savage voice like Diana Damrau with the acting prowess of Dessay, that would be beyond epic.

Daniel Ramírez de Gastón: I agree that both Dessay and Damrau are amazing. But, I have been really looking at them closely in this role the past several says and I have to say what I feel. Perhaps it is just the direction they were given, but I much prefer Damrau's interpretation. Dessay has a beautiful voice, and she makes this sound so easy, which we all know is not the case! But theatrically, it doesn't make sense to me. She plays it as if it's killing her to tell her daughter to kill Sarastro, that it's breaking her heart to disown her child if she doesn't murder someone. And it doesn't work for me. It goes against the text she is singing. She says, more or less, "Kill this man. If you don't do it, I will disown you, breaking all natural bonds between a mother and child. This man must die at your hands, or you will mean nothing to me." She's asking her daughter to choose between a man, and her own mother. And, to me, it just doesn't seem in character to be so overwrought with guilt and pain, or even shame, for someone who could be so cold blooded as to plot a murder such as this, and ask that it be done in such a way, by her own daughter's hand. This is only my opinion, but I just feel Damrau nails the interpretation. She's pissed off and it shows. She is dedicated to her cause and will let nothing stop her, even the maternal bond, the bond of nature! Theatrically, it makes more sense to me.

At the festival of Aix-en-Provence, Dessay first performed the role of "Queen of the Night" in Mozart's The Magic Flute. Although she was hesitant to perform the role, saying that she didn't want to play any "evil" characters, director convinced her that this Queen would be different -- almost a sister to Pamina. Dessay agreed to do the role, claiming it would be a one-time series of performances. There followed a years-long series of "final" performances of the "Queen of the Night".

Listening to this brings me to tears

man for some strange reason this brought me to tears...

I have just recently discovered this artist...and,I have to say that her expression is amazing. It's also amazing that she can do all of those actions and not have her pitch suffer.

Ms Dessay is the most emotional Queen of the Night I have ever seen....exceptional performance!!!! xoxoxoxo love from Tennessee!!!!

This is the most ridiculously awesome thing I've ever seen.

OMFG! Her voice is an angels! ♥Teena

GREAT!! Simply one of the best!!

Es ist einfach nur Wunderschön. Bei ihr hört man im gesang einen Schmerz. Die Enttäuschung durch ihre Tochter macht bringt sie zu Verzweiflung, nicht so wie bei anderen wo man nur Hochmut, Stolz und Gnadenlosigkeit darstellt. Dessay ist sogar, würde ich sagen, besser als Damrau. Obwohl Damrau auch eine super Performance macht. Sie spielt super mit der Musik mit.

LOVED how it had french subtitles!

I like the batshit wild interpretation EDIT: Voice department is also amazing :o

In my vocal lessons, when I kneal it also helps me hit thehigher notes. My teacher says that it helps because your body is more relaxed and free.

im german and i understand the lyrics better than her singing :s

Miss Dessay is the most emotional Queen of the Night I have ever seen....exceptional performance.! xoxoxoxo love from Tennessee!!

Fantastic performance, from a technical, musical and absolutely from a performance perspective. For a technical performance I prefer Christine Deutekom, but Dessay really knocks it out of the park here for all other parts

Dessay and Damrau they're both amazing and the one that I love.

perfect acting!!!! i just saw luciana serra's rendition and thought it was unsurpassable! brilliant!!! fantastic! 5 stars!

Finally, listening to her song, I realized that Night Queen was heartbroken not just a mean bitch as I used to think - all the singers seem to be so calm while singing it.... but she has so much passion in her voice, and also some despair. I just love this piece

touched beyond words

i totally agree. thank god for singers who can ACT.

Agreed, a fine and absorbing interpretation highlighting the sublime music of this particular opera and the courage of Mozart to go beyond the rigours of the Viennese conventions of the day.

Love, love LOVE Nathalie Dessay.

what emotion!

I can believe some one can do that with a human voice.

Bravo à Nathalie ! Comme toujours c'est magnifique !

The vocalizations written in the piece make the soprano use her voice like an instrument. It was very innovative for the time. That is why Mozart is so great he made all the musicians and the sopranos push the envelope in their virtuosity. Ah ! Mozart why did you have to die?

i love her performance

Natalie Dessay's voice fits the part of the queen very well. There is a good combination of her voice and her character. She is one of my favorites! Opera singers are so inspiring. =)

You have to see that Damrau and Dessay Queen of the Night's interpretations are unique in their own style. Dessay was a revalation when she did this production in 1994 when Damrau probably ever thought that she would play this role. Dessay got the crown as Queen of the Night back then an she was praised for it. Now Damrau has got the crown and the raises. Different interpretation, different voices and voval range, different time. But both great and unique.

wonderful Dessay, she creates a character, fantastic performance, the best with Eda Moser and Lucia Popp

Bravo Nathalie tu es formidable !

All the critics, you will die without doing anything as worthy as this one song. Remember it as you leave this world, please.

The Queen does not loook majestic but rather desperate and frightened herself, but a beautifu voice!!!!!!!!!

I love this song. well done on performance and I absolutly love her costume.

Génial. La posture de la mère avec sa fille est puissamment étudiée et mise en scène. Les coiffures sont excellentes aussi (en plus du son qui est parfait pour moi).

I love Dessay's performance! One of the things I like about it is how she resolves the contradiction of the aria itself: the hateful words in a bright coloratura aria. Dessay does it with her facial expressions, singing the melisma as if she's screaming insanely.

Einfach nur ein Meisterwekr der Musik

I agree!! Diana Damrau just has this way about the Queen that no one else has- I think the madness of the Queen comes out in Diana's voice and it may be better than how the Queen's madness shows mainly in Dessay's physical acting.

Magnifique!!!

I cant believe she threw her on the floor! hahahaaha. im in love

what a perfection! dessay is the best singer I ever heard..

J'avoue ne rien y connaitre en matière d'opéra mais ça m'as vraiment donné des frissons !

i quite enjoy this performance. even though the Queen is supposed to be certainly mysterious and cold, this portrayal shows the Queen's inner torment over her human side (the motherly affection) and the vengeance that overpowers her in the end. Therefore the character has depth and is much more interesting than the singer just standing there singing this difficult aria awkwardly at Pamina's side. This reminds us that, at one time, the Queen actually had emotions enough to have a relationship.

Her acting gave me a taste of how the same character can be interpreted quite differently in opera. Her voice is shrill compared to its old timbre (due to vocal nodules she had developed at the time they say) but the passage at 1:15-1:20 is the best I've heard it performed for this aria, and it is also good at 1:42-1:52.

Amazing...such emotion.

I like Dessay's performance here. Without comparing her to any other singer I'll say that her portrayal is realistic. She doesn't play it generally anything. She makes specific acting choices and makes it a believable crazed mother. Also, she sings in tune with a good sense of rhythm.

after seeing the english subtitles or german so many times the french subtitles on this are awesome