Strauss: Feuersnot - Cordes, Bjoner, Proebstl; Keilberth; Köln, 1965
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If Der Rosenkavalier could be said to be Strauss' attempt to write Le Nozze di Figaro, his early opera Feuersnot is definitely his attempt to replicate Meistersinger. Creating both a kind of parody and a celebration of Wagner's philosophies on "redemption through love", this is a somewhat metatheatrical work in which Strauss throws down the gauntlet to his critics. He even goes so far as to proclaim himself, through the use of a untranslatable pun on their names, the anointed successor to the great Wagner. Luckily, he was able to back that claim up, or else Feuersnot would have been even more obscure than it is now. This performance, from Köln in 1965, captures a strong cast led by Ingrid Bjoner as the coquettish Diemut and a blustering Marcel Cordes as the thinly-veiled stand-in for the composer, the sorcerer Kunrad.
BONUS:
Ingrid Bjoner sings arias from Lohengrin, Daphne, Elektra and Ariadne auf Naxos
OD 11117-2
