Ludmila Dvorakova was hardly out of the running by the spring of 1969: She would be one of Bayreuth's Kundrys that summer. But she and Wolfang Windgassen were singing on borrowed time. Still, it is impressive how the Berne opera company rises to meet them at their level. Elisabeth Payer-Tucci is a full-voiced Marzelline who would evolve into a Brünnhilde in a decade, Horst Küster keeps pace with her as Jacquino and Karl Helm is a sonorous Rocco. Jacob Keller's Don Pizarro is a sort of poor man's Gustav Neidlinger: the right baleful timbre but too much unsteadiness to be ignored. Ewald Koerner drives the score onward with a highly dramatic sense of pacing and no *faux* reverence. Dialogue is cut to a bare minimum.Dvorakova can wait in the wings no longer. "Ascheulischer!" betrays a certain blowsiness at forte but the soft singing is admirably steady and expressive. "Komm, Hoffnung," regrettably lacks poetry and the top notes are attenuated, although she latches onto a couple of good ones at the end of the aria. (Poor horn playing appends a sort of Bronx cheer.) Her singing in Act II tends to be hooty and dubiously pitched. Wearing his years lightly, Wolfgang Windgassen gives affecting renderings of his aria and the Dungeon Trio. One would never suspect that he was still on a heavy diet of Siegfrieds and Tristans. If one buys this set, do it for Windgassen. The uncredited Don Fernando is solid, albeit rather stolid.

Dvorakova is very good, nice voice, capable of singing Leonore. She has enough stamina for the role, so you don't hear strain in her voice. I was never an admirer of Windgassen. You can hear some strain in his voice, this is old Florestan, but he still manages somehow the role. I don't blame him, in 1969 he would sing only few more years. I belive one of his last performances was in Wiener Staatsoper as Erik in Der Fliegende Hollaender on 28th December 1972, so for his age and more than 25 years of sinfing career he is quite acceptable. Horst Kuster as Jacquino and Elisabeth Payer-Tucci as Marzeline are both very charming. Walter Bachmann is frightening as Don Pizarro as he should be, And Karl Helm in excellent, humane Rocco. I liked the Orchestra and chorus of Stadttheater Bern under capable Ewald Koerner.