there is some passionate singing here, as well as sparkling instrumental detail...The cast is of a very high standard, though Villazón, despite being superbly lyrical, can lack a certain pliant tenderness...Damrau is at her very best in the defiant aria 'Marten aller Arten'...Also, we get some very effective singing from Anna Prohaska as Blonde who reaches her high E in 'Durch Zärtlichkeit' with aplomb.

interesting, but never exaggerated musicianship...Villazón is a fixture and features here as a vivid Belmonte of not quite the right vocal colours. Neither he nor Diana Damrau’s sometimes shrill Konstanze is ideal, but the others...are keen personalities and all well cast.

Once again, Nézet-Séguin shows how good he is in Mozart. His speeds are well judged, never too fast for the singers to articulate clearly. And he has the knack of bringing out detail without sounding fussy...In his first German role, Villazón sounds assured, both in speech and song...Blonde presents many challenges, and Prohaska meets them all.

With her flexible silvery tone and diamond-bright upper extension Diana Damrau is pretty much my ideal in the demanding role of Konstanze...Prohaska eschews arch simpering in favour of a cool, no-nonsense imperiousness that audibly takes the wind out of Osmin’s sails...What a luxury it is to have the great German bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff (recently retired from singing) in the spoken role of Pasha Selim.

this is the most satisfactory instalment so far of DG’s projected recordings of [Villazon] surmounts the difficulties, if not effortlessly, then with more than credit. Damrau makes light of Konstanze’s bravura challenges, but her sound can turn steely and fierce...Anna Prohaska and Paul Schweinester are an attractive comic pair, Franz-Josef Selig is the best Osmin on disc since Kurt Moll...The set’s success is guaranteed by Nézet-Séguin’s airy conducting of a full edition.

There’s a bouncy enthusiasm to Nézet-Séguin’s approach, with its wide, dynamic contrasts, but not a great deal of subtlety, though the COE is its usual cultivated and alert self...The sense of style that’s missing in Villazón’s singing is emphasised by the other tenor, Paul Schweinester as Pedrillo, and especially by Diana Damrau as Konstanze.

The casting is largely excellent. Diana Damrau makes an imperious Konstanze...Schweinester is as bright as a button as Pedrillo, leaving Rolando Villazón as the only significant drawback...what lifts the recording into the top league is undoubtedly the quality of Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s conducting. From the first bars of the playful overture, he captures all the score’s bravado and energy

[Damrau] delivers the best Martern aller Arten I’ve heard for yonks: a delicious compendium of tangled emotions, gloriously matched by virtuosic instrumental playing...Singing with great sensuality and perhaps even flutier top notes, Anna Prohaska makes a spirited Blonde...[Villazon] sings Belmonte with bluff vigour and a fine, metallic ring to the voice.