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Catarina Ligendza
This week we are looking back at the career of Swedish dramatic soprano Catarina Ligendza. Born in Stockholm to soprano Brita Hertzberg and tenor Einar Beyron, she went on to sing at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, La Scala and the Bayreuth Festival, where she became particularly admired for her Wagner roles, including Brünnhilde and Isolde. She was a favorite collaborator of Carlos Kleiber, particularly in the role of Isolde.
In celebration, we are offering 40% off all of her recordings.
Catarina Ligendza
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The Divas of Sadler's Wells
Featuring ten legendary sopranos who helped set the standard.
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120 New "Coming Soon" Titles
I have added 120 new titles to our “Coming Soon” collection, including several recordings that have never been available before.
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Every week we offer 12 new titles available to stream for free
Compilation: Amy Shuard
Excerpts from Macbeth, Walküre, Götterdämmerung, Katya Kabanova, Tristan & more
Compilation: Anne Evans
Excerpts from Temistocle, Die Fledermaus, Dalibor, La Traviata, Lohengrin, Walküre, Elektra & Die Frau ohne Schatten
Compilation: Martina Arroyo in Concert
Amsterdam, 1967. BONUS: Martina Arroyo Sings Verdi
Donizetti: Maria Stuarda (In English)
Baker, Tinsley, Erwin, Garrard; Mackerras. London, 1973
Mozart: Così fan tutte (In English)
Harwood, Baker, Curragh, Westi, Van Der Bilt, Shirley-Quirk; Gibson. Glasgow, 1969
Spotlight: Hilde Güden
From Our Collectors
Five-Star Reviews
Opera lovers share their discoveries from the catalogue.
Bel Canto Fan
“This is one of my favorite Rossini operas and now probably my favorite recording. A young Caballe in great voice. My only criticism is that the finale seems rushed compared with other recordings I have. Sound overall is excellent.”
Excellent Traviata, Slightly Different Edition of a Familiar Score!
“I love "wrong" language opera and this famous recording is one of the best. Bjoerling sings very beautifully, adding a number of interpolated high notes along the way (a top C in his offstage serenade during "Sempre libera", a B-flat at the end of Act Two, scene one). He is not the only reason to treasure this recording though. Schymberg was a much bigger star in Sweden than the was in the West, but she did make several appearances at the Met after WWII. She sang Gilda and Susanna; broadcasts of both survive to show what a charming, lovely singer she was. Her Gilda employs all the usual high interpolations expected at the time. Her Violetta is sweetly sung and if she doesn't really plumb the depths of this complex woman, she is most sympathetic. "Follie" is accurately articulated (with an extra breath or two) and "Sempre libera " is capped with the obligatory and traditional E-flat (a very good note too!) Molin sings most sympathetically as Germont though his intonation isn't always spot-on.There are some performance variants here and there. Two solo voices open the opera instead of a chorus. "Amami, Alfredo" is followed by an orchestral recapitulation of the main theme. This is a feature of the French version of this opera; how it ended up in Sweden is anyone's guess. All the usual other cuts are made.The overall performance make this recording worth having. The sound is incredibly good for 1939. All Bjoerling and (why not?) Schymberg fans should have this.”
CONTACTING OPERA DEPOT...
“To Bryan G.:The best way to have your technical problems fixed is to email Andy direct at .I hope that's helpful; the 'Customer reviews' area is...well, for customer reviews (smiley face)!”
Nilsson and Vickers? Must have!
“I have to admit, prior to discovering Opera Depot, I did not know of the conductor Horst Stein. I purchased one of the Ring Cycles with Stein conducting and loved the energy he brought to it. So when Opera Depot was having their Birgit Nilsson sale and I saw there was this recording with Birgit Nilsson, Jon Vickers, and Horst Stein there was no doubt I had to order it. I thought the sound was fantastic, my only issues were two very brief moments in I believe the first act and the final act where there was some odd sort of interruption to the sound. Neither instance lasted more than a second or two and these blips certainly did not distract me from the rest of the opera. How could it? Nilsson is one of my favorites and I am very happy with this recording.”
Bliss!
“Rysanek, Konya and Varnay are amazing. The entire recording is a blessing in every way. The conducting is certain, deliberate, and glorious. I'm utterly in love with Konya's voice. The drama is front and center here.”
Die Fledermaus with a dream cast
“2 things: one is I emailed you 7 Jan asking if the missing track 8 was a flaw, but got no reply.two is, following the arrival of a new computer (Windows 10), Windows Media Player runs along nicely until I get to burn, when it tells me it won't go any further, giving a list of possible reasons, none of which I understand.Any ideas please?Bernard SmithLondon”
Kna Rocks!
“It wuz goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood.”
Walter Hartman
“What a cast, what a recording. With the exception of Varnay, these other singers are available in these roles but on other recordings. The collection of them here makes this special. Bjoner is one of the best Kaiserins. She may be less animalistic than a Rysanek but she sings with greater control and has fabulous high notes. Nilsson (in one of her earliest performances of the Dyer's Wife) is superb. While her heroic qualities are always well known, one hears here too her beautiful soft feminine moments of introspection and hurt. Varnay is wonderfully evil. King and Fisher-Dieskau both offer one of a kind performances o their roles. King owned this role in the time period and there was a very good reason for that. Fischer-Dieskau gives a very lovely lyrical reading of this most sympathetic part. Sawallisch is a great conductor.”
Amazingly muscular performance, and well-sung
“We all know the 1980 video of this production with almost the same cast as here, but listening to this performance from 1976, I can hear plainly: by the time they made the video in 1980, all these guys were past their peak. Here in 1976, they're so much FRESHER! Especially Donald Mcintyre and Matti Salminen sing totally without inhibition, as if they're thinking the lines for the first time. The differences in cast also make this performance stronger than the 1980 video: Bengt Rundgren is much better than Fritz Hubner was as Fafner in 1980. Hubner sounded tired and woolly but Rundgren is fierce and intimidating. And while Hermann Becht in 1980 got the pathos of his character (Alberich), Zoltan Kelemen here is much scarier. He sounds as if he were ready to bite off Wotan's nose. If there's a flaw, it's that he shouts a bit too much, rather than singing. (Earlier Alberichs like Adolf Vogel and Alois Pernerstorfer from the 1940s often performed the role this way; one of Gustav Neidlinger's innovations was to sing the role rather than grunting and barking through it.) But Kelemen's fearsome personality more than justifies these liberties.Boulez's conducting is very tough minded but also tender in places; reminds me of Karl Bohm.”
B@lls to the Wall Salome
“La Rysanek in full flight must have been something to behold. You can hear the audience literally go beserk after the final chords. Excellent sound actually, better than expected, balance with singers is good and the voices captured very realistically. Rysanek goes sharp in a passionate moment or two in the final scene but that is a MINOR quibble. Fantastic performance. Vickers and Stewart seem determined to keep up with her.Exciting to listen to repeatedly.”
The Other 1970 PARSIFAL
“After some detailed comparative sampling, I’d suggest this is essential – not just as an appendix to the DG issue of the same year but as, in at least one perspective, preferable to it. Although it’s not a matter of Live vs Studio, it’s nonetheless true that the contrast is between a single performance that is flawed but intense and a composite from several performances that is satisfyingly precise but rather less exciting. My guess is that not much of DG derives from 2 August. Crass behind and rushing to catch up in the Act I Verwandlungmusik; Stewart rough and approximate when revealing his wound in Act III; King not quite on the beat in a couple of places: these moments were obviously unusable. Yet both King and Stewart are in great voice, and the latter, completely inside his role, much more intense in his big moments than on DG. Even Crass (beautiful voice, dull interpreter) shows more emotion in Act III here than on DG – though his habit of skimping dotted notes at brisk tempos introduces a parlando element into his narratives. On DG Jones is superb in the last 10-15 minutes of Act II; here on 2 August there is extra electricity, and she is nothing short of sensational. It’s a wonderful combination of technical discipline and dramatic self-abandonment in a singer – exactly what’s required for Kundry in Act II – and it should provoke comparison with Mödl for Clemens Krauss (at similar tempos) in 1953.”
John Querns
“Ann opera I have always enjoyed. In this performance Nicolai Gedda floats effortlessly through the aria. Christianne Eda-Pierre is terrific as Leila with fluent coloratura as well as dealing with the heftier moments. Bruson seems a strange choice with those two but of course he has that voice and completes a fine line-up in these three principal roles. Enjoy this lovely piece, there's more to it than one duet!”
A great Jenufa
“As one might expect, Sena was a deeply moving, vocally impeccable Jenufa before moving on to the Kostelnicka towards the end of her career, a role she also sang in San Francisco with Elisabeth Söderström as Jenufa. This recording is in German, as was then common and the version works well, as the German libretto was by no less than Max Brod. Kmennt and Uhl as the rivals for Jenufa’s hand, Grace Hoffmann a thrilling Kostelnicka and even Hilde Konetzni right at the end of her career as the local justice’s wife. I recall the performance well having attended in the legendary Vienna Stehplatz (standing room) at the back of the State Opera stalls.”
Superb
“I had often wondered about "Leonore" and took the plunge attracted by the combination of Tinsley and Mackerras. What a wonderful surprise! The work is great, punchy and dramatic, and not at all the poor relation of "Fidelio". The recording quality is superb, and the cast uniformly good. Tinsley gets the opportunity to give us some elaborate coloratura work, all written in Beethoven's anti-vocal instrumental style, and she performs with typical panache, remarkable for a performer who was my first Salome, Elektra, Turandot, Dyer's Wife, Abigaille, and Lady Macbeth. Of all my many purchases since I was fortunate enough to discover Opera Depot last year (every one of them terrific) this has been the most pleasurable surprise. Recommended without any hesitation.”
Superlative “Giovanni”
““Don Giovanni”, with so many vital characters and such a variety of musical mood, is a most elusive opera, seldom satisfying in the theatre. I have at least thirty recordings of it on my shelves; this live Solti one is one of the few to which I often return, and is in several parts classic, even definitive, certainly worthy of obsession. Those parts range from the dark, dramatically crucial, comic/tragic trios for three bass/baritones to the incomparably celestial trio for Anna (Margaret Price), Elvira (Kiri Te Kanawa), and Ottavio (Stuart Burrows), all in top form and taking the music onto another plane. Soyer is seductive and voracious in voice (as he was in person) as Giovanni. Solti shows the different facets of the opera with great power and colour; every part is extremely well taken.”
A LITTLE (ABRIDGED) GEM!
“If you are looking forward to luxuriating in hours of note-complete opera seria, this highly abridged concert performance is not for you. What does impress is that in 1957, a cast of American artists and orchestral musicians was assembled to perform Rossini as to the manner born. Each contributes to a musically graceful, dramatically sophisticated whole. The crown jewels are Farrell’s Willow Song and the enchanting Desdemona/Emilia duet in Act 1. Sadly absent is Rodrigo’s aria, which Rossini later repurposed for his “Cat Duet”. Sound good.”
Very good!
“I love it! Greindl as Wanderer is excellent, Parly much better kept as in Glasgow ... Lindholm very good. Stolze as Mime fabulous! And Erika Köth a brilliant Woodbird, certainly one of the best in the history of recording.”
Parsifal-Bayreuth-62-Knappertsbusch
“Perfecta ,a grabación, solo un pequeño fallo, act1º, al entrar en el Templo, las primeras campanadas , no se escuchan, sin importancia.Philips, grabó en su dia, en 1962, varias funciones, de ahi sacó la recopilación de la grabación Oficial. Qiuen sacará algun dia una función con Astrid Varnay.”
Prey shines in Handel rarity
“Rodelinda has slowly made its way into the periphery of the standard repertoire, but in 1956 it, and almost all Handel opera for that matter, was largely unknown. Fortunately this cast of artists manages to find the heart of Handel's masterpiece even if the style must have seemed very remote.”
complete cast
“Here comes the complete cast:Riccardo: Carlo CossuttaAmelia: Catarina LigendzaRenato: Ingvar WixellUlrica: Eva RandovaOscar: Costanza CuccaroSilvano: George FortuneSamuel: Tomislav NeralicTom: Ivan SardiGiudice: Leopold ClamServo d'Amelia: Robert KoffmaneChor und Orchester der Deutschen Oper BerlinConductor: Lorin Maazel”
Matey
“I bought the MP3 version of this recording mostly for Joan Sutherland, so the review will almost wholly be about her.First off, the sound is great. However, at the moment, these tracks are not labeled! Do not let that stop you from buying this recording, though, as it is an amazing document and a must-have performance for any serious Joan Sutherland enthusiast.The recording took place, as you've almost certainly already noticed, in 1974; that was Miss Sutherland's debut with Opera Australia. She is in very good voice, besides for a couple slightly under the center of the pitch E-flats in the Doll Song and another one or two more difficult-sounding (but on-pitch) Ds. Miss Tourangeau also does a great job, and the duet in the beginning of the second act is beautifully done.Finally, the CDs are split into acts, the first one including the prologue and act one, the second one act two, and the third one act three and the epilogue. If you have the studio recording, you can easily fill in a few of the more important tracks' names, since they are split very well.Ultimately a great buy!P.S.: The back cover has an incorrect spelling of the word \""orchestra,\"" adding an extra \""h\"" at the beginning.”
Gurre-Lieder - Janowitz, Ludwig, Sergi, Dickie; Krips. Wien, 1969
“The performance is excellent as far as must be imagined. However, it is sad that the 1969 sound resembles the Stokowski 78 rpm set more than the state of the art sound of 1969. One would never suspect the massive forces involved in this performance, and climaxes aredefinitely diminished by the engineering. Solo singers predominiate over the probably over200 insstrumentalists and chrous. Worth a listen, but only if you know this piece pretty well.”
RICHARD STRAUSS'S "DER ROSENKAVALIER" CONDUCTED BY CARLOS KLEIBER
“Richard Strauss's "Der Rosenkavalier" conducted by Carlos Kleiber and displaying a starry cast of singers (Evelyn Lear, Brigitte Fassbaender, Lucia Popp, Karl Ridderbusch, etc.) is arguably the best you can get in 1976 at Teatro alla Scala di Milano. Highly recommended! A must!”
I loved !!!!!
“I love this opera that I saw in Paris once with Montserrat Caballe , Kathleen Battle... a version that i would be so happy you have in your list.This version directed by Böhm is wonderful !!!!!He is an ideal conductor for Richard Strauss !!!He is surrounded with a wonderful distribution !!!!Thank you for this version.Bu please, find the one of Paris that I saw.....”
Maliponte-Serene
“This is one of three finest opera recording I own. The performance is strongly sung answers more. Maliponte's voice has deeply sensuous overtones which create an unparalleled mad scene. The voice is darkly coloured yet flexible and easily lightened in order to create the otherworldliness demanded by a mad scene.”
Top Satisfaction with quality and choices
“I do have a problem with one of my purchases.I had ordered 2 different Puccini operas:1) Tosca Nov 22,1978 Caballe, DiStefano, Herles2) Turandot 1973 Nilsson, Bjorling, Dose I has played other items I had purchased recently from Opera Depot. Last evening I started to play Turandot. It didn't take long to realize that it was Tosca.It seems I have received TWO c/d's of Tosca and no Turandot.Please advise,Thomas E. Geraghtytomgeraty@aol.com”
Xavier Otazu
“Famous Boulez 1980 version (DVD) was my favourite Ring version among many other video and audio versions (Solti, Barenboim, Krauss, Karajan, Bohm, Keilberth, etc) ... up to now! This 77 version is at the same level (if not higher) as the 80's one. It is not as fast as the 80, but you can feel the tension, passion and electricity of the 80 and the special feeling that have REAL "live" recordings. Boulez has a total control of the orchestra (perhaps because of the "strike" by the musicians) with extremely clear and transparent voices, and you can hear the usual "surgical" Boulez sound and direction. This version has become my Ring mielstone.”
Martin Ramor
“Nice recording of Tosca. Domingo sounds fresh in his young years and very convincing as Cavaradossi. Schauer and Ludgin nice in roles of Tosca and Scarpia. For a change I enjoyed listening to Tosca in English. Orchestra is good. Interesting to hear what was possible in regional opera house in USA in 60's.”
Fabulous Tristan buy
“My favourite Wagner opera and I wasn’t disappointed with this 76 Bayreuth performance under Kleiber. He gets everything right and the lead performers are on top form. Wenkoff is outstanding especially in Act 3. You won’t be disappointed. Great purchase.”
Chad Marcel
“Magical RING from Karajan and Company. My first RING was Karajan's studio version. After all these years, it was wonderful to hear the corresponding live performances. They're even more compelling than the studio counterparts.”
James Davidson
“For many years Modl for von Karajan has been my standard for this work. Her wonderful passion, intensity and oddly moving voice are wonderful. However here is a very different and just as valid standard, without Modl's difficulties such as her odd breathing technique. Davis conducts a beautifully realised performance with Shuard singing passionately, beautifully and accurately. Simply wonderful. Dowd's Tristan, so very different to Vickers, my first and favourite live Tristan, is hugely touching and very moving, and also beautifully sung. Highly recommended. Thank you Opera Depot for allowing me the opportunity to hear this. I'm most grateful!”
One of the best live recordings of Il Trovatore
“I had heard of this recording for years and was glad to see that Opera Depot carried it. This stands alongside Price’s other great live recordings from 1961 with the Met and 1962 at Salzburg, a part of the great “hell-bent-for-leather” performances of the 50s and 60s, when the 4 soloists and conductor performed not just as if their lives depended on it but as if the future of Italian opera depended on it. It’s also great to hear Bergonzi live in this role to compliment his great studio recording. The sound is excellent and all the soloists seem to keep trying to one-up each, and given the more formal reputations of the other soloists, it was probably Price who pushed them to it, to amazing effect. Stands with Del Monaco/Tebaldi, Del Monaco/Gencer, Callas/de Stefano, and the aforementioned earlier Price and Bergonzi recordings as one of the great performances.”
A Midsummer Night's Dream
“This is a fascinating issue, most particularly for Oberlin's idiosyncratic Oberon: a rather self-indulgent performance and not the voice for which Britten wrote, but undeniably effective. Joan Carlyle is a full-voiced Tytania, quite different from Jennifer Vyvyan's creation of the role. It is also good to have Geraint Evans complete account of Bottom: he would later record the first commercially available extract from the opera, a few months before Britten's complete classic set. The Lovers are varied but the Mechanicals are an excellent team. Overall, well worth the purchase.”
I was there
“I was excited to see that this performance was available since I was in attendance. Highlighting the performance were two young singers, Montserrat Caballe and Placido Domingo. Caballe sails through her role with ease. She floats several notes that are probably still going. Reminds me of Zinka Milanov. Domingo acquits himself very well. Other principals provide excellent support. Thank you, Andy, for letting me re-live one of my favorite night at the opera.”
John Stanton
“The immediate attraction here of course is the three great voices of Carrerras, Cappuccilli and Dimitrova. Carrerras early in his career is in glorious sappy voice, showing no signs of the strain that afflicted it less than ten years later. Dimitrova's enormous voice is impressive although she is probably not the most vulnerable or affecting Amelia. Cappuccilli was still in 1971 the best Verdi baritone in the world and his distinctly Italianate sound gives great presence to his Renato. The audience requests and gets an encore to "Eri tu ".The supporting cast is very good, with notably a smoky voiced Ulrica.The sound is very good, clean and voices in happy balance with the orchestra.”
Cose d'altri tempi.
“Nessuno oggi canta così. Questo può bastare. Che l'edizione di Bonynge sia tagliata o altro non toglie nulla al fascino dell'esecuzione. Vivaddio non ci sono strumenti cosiddetti "originali" che sono una sciagura, sembrando sempre orchestre di chitarre. Sutherland meravigliosa, irreale, stratosferica e coloratissima, una vera regina. Tourangeau anche lei nella parte e lo stesso dicasi per la Lucia Popp, meno tedesca del solito. Bonynge grande accompagnatore, in queste opere bisogna saperlo fare e lui e' maestro anche nel clavicembalo di solito, e ottimo concertatore. A quei tempi Handel si faceva così e storcere il naso e' assolutamente ridicolo. E' meglio ascoltare la Sutherland con Bonynge o la Jarusski con gli odierni?”
Luis Lopez Bonilla
“This is an authoritative Meistersinger conducted by someone who apparently won a conductor's prize tied with Furtwangler in their youth. It shows. The cast is excellent all round. I enjoyed particularly Schoeffler and Suthaus. For me it compares very well with Kna's 1955 Munich version with F. Frantz and is better than most.”
Enchanting Performance of a Bittersweet Opera!
“Everything clicks in this performance of La Rondine, an opera that until the last 25 years was only rarely heard. With its bittersweet ending and romantic, tuneful score Rondine is unlike a lot of Puccini's other scores. He wanted to compose an operetta and he did - sort of. I'm glad this recording uses his preferred ending without the silly suicide imposed on it more recently by a misguided Marta Domingo.Carteri is enchanting as Magda; it's completely believable that the men are besotted by her. She makes specific choices in her phrasing and singing, allowing Puccini to make his points without imposing on them. Gismondo does not have the most melting of voices, but he phrases intelligently and with such passion without going overboard as some tenors do at the end. Sinimberghi and Rovero are charming as the secondary couple and Valdengo makes his mark as Magda's sugar daddy Rambaldo. The native Italian cast all assist with excellent diction. Bellezza knows this music intimately and assists his singers without crushing them. The sound is also very good with no glitches that I heard.Highly recommended.”
Excellent performance tidy sound
“I bought this record beacuse of Gianna Pederzini, because she was the most famous Rosa Mamai in the history of this opera. Though she was a little bit far from her prime she can create an extraordinary atmosphere in her emblematic role. Emma Tegai an unremembered but excellent sopran sings Vivetta with full of passion. Juan Oncina, a tenor I'm not always happy to see in the cast makes here a very good job. In the role of Federico he can combine beauty and elegance with passion. Aldo Protti's voice seems me a little bit lighter than usual but he is radiant as Baldassare. Federico del Cupolo gives a very dramatic reading of this verismo opera. Unfortunately the sound is not the best but acceptable and the singing is enjoyable. Highly recommanded it for the lovers of the verismo.”
Guido Bathe
“This recording is of a Premiere, which it is coducted by Fricsay, not by Lenzer. The date which is noted in other publications is about of a performance of "Boccaccio". This Performance shows the work of an Ensemble, not of stars.”
Noblest Fidelio.
“Although I am no opera fiend, I discover I have three recordings of Fidelio, an opera that never worked for me until this recording. I had a sense that Beethoven’s genius did not work so well for the high performance of opera, but here, with Vickers and Behrens, the gripping nobility of composer’s intentions comes at us clear and strong. Surely Vickers and Behrens were among the most committed and noble sorts – it is hard to imagine that they, both in great voice here, did not find each other Fidelio soulmates. Here they catch each other’s fire, and the opera becomes a great one. In this pandemic time, a reminder of the best in the human spirit. I had the previous issue of this recording, with middingly crummy sound but still a wonder, but here we are with much finer sound and much more clarity, crispness, and depth. Yet I will keep the older set and play it sometimes, for something might be said for a great performance caught by secret microphone under some’s foot in a balcony – a captured glimpsed wonder through a narrow crack, like when I as a child I heard faraway sounds on monster-tubed shortwave radios. Goodall’s measured pacing works great for me, for dignity such as produced by Behrens and Vickers has much complexity and works well coming at us a slowly enough that we can find more and more of it. I have listened to this recording twice in two days, a good sign. John in DC”
giovanni martini
“Interpretation vivid and dramatically superb voice cast and orchestra subjugated by perfect freedom granted by the Master, the intrinsic value of each singer and instrumentalist, fully exercised in the compactness of an Absolute: that of Herbert von Karajan!”
Great that you share this recording
“Wonderful! Especially as I created editions of Kozub and Watson with the Hamberger Archiv für Gesangskunst in the past. At this time this great recording that was completely missing. Best greetings! T.”
ONE OF THE GREAT WOZZECKS!!
“Aside from the incredibly great singing in all the roles, Sanzogno's conducting rivals the best!! He studied with Hermann Scherchen which may explain the wealth of probing detail exposed at every measure. The sound is excellent and should not be a factor. I far prefer this Italian Wozzeck to the one conducted by Bohm.”
Magnificent
“Many opera-goers, whether seasoned Wagnerians or not, rate performances by the WNO under Goodall as among the most memorable of their lives. This recording helps one understand why. The cast may all not be particularly well-known to international collectors, but, inspired by Goodall, rise magnificently to the challenges of the score. I was particularly taken with Kathryn Harries’s fresh-voiced Sieglinde, while Warren Ellsworth has a youthful firmness of tone that supports a fine characterisation. Anne Evans is also in glorious voice, again younger-sounding than many rivals on disc. Philip Joll conveys Wotan’s vulnerability, but there is authority there too. Fine, detailed sound makes it even easier to hear Goodall’s understanding of the score: tempi that are occasionally on the slow side, by modern standards, actually enhance rather than diminish the drama. A triumph.”
Nilsson´s first Turandot
“Suzanne is right. Nilsson sang her first Turandot at the Stockholm Opera on febr 23th -57. I am a witness, I was there, Nilsson had already sung all heavy Wagner roles and an extraordinary Salome but the public was not prepared for her Turandot. We were chocked and overwhelmed. How could there be a a voice capable to be heard the whole act 2? Enormous sound without effort and when the lasertones met one´s body they provoked a thrilling physical feeling. The initiative was taken by Svanholm, the famous wagnertenor, chief of the opera since -56. The old production was by Dobrowen. Svanholm wanted to find a new role for her. She was glad as the role was so short! Ít has gone 60 years and such a voice will never be heard again.”
Fabulous Meistersinger from Bayreuth
“I ordered this set purely because of Norman Bailey but I wasn't expecting such a wonderful performance as this. Hans Wallat, a conductor I had never come across before, gives an excellent account of the score. Everything feels just "right" and the sound is fabulous, just like sitting in the front row of the stalls in the "Festspielhaus" (I imagine). Janis Martin is a beautiful Eva; Jean Cox a youthful sounding Walther; and Norman Bailey a noble, warm hearted Sachs. Thomas Hemsley plays Beckmesser "straight" - no funny voices or comedy slapstick - and is very effective. His scene in Act 3 with Sachs plays entirely off the words and is all the more amusing for it. The orchestra is magnificent. There is some radio interference from other broadcasting channels in a few brief places, but that hardly matters when the performance is as good as this one. And a big bonus for me was that Act 1 fits complete on the first CD! Many thanks. I'm looking forward to listening to the 1970 Ring now...”
Elisabeth Grümmer - a great Marschallin
“Can't add much to what the previous reviewer has said, which I fully agree. I bought this mainly for Elisabeth Grümmer's Marschallin, a role she never recorded commercially and she fully meets all expectations and more - a truly great, endearing portrayal completely capturing all the character's poise, dignity, wistfulness and eventual resignation to time and fate. The "skips" towards the end of Act 1 due to corruption of tape are indeed annoying but it's better to have this entire performance than nothing.”
