Most Western opera lovers know Liane Synek from her Helmwige on Bohm's 1966/67 Bayreuth Ring cycle. Andy has been great about giving us as much as he can find of Synek's recordings: hopefully, there will be more.These extended excerpts begin at the Mandarin's line right before "In questa reggia" ("In diesem Schlosse" in this case) and go through the rest of the act. Except for the opening two minutes or so, the entire third act is also present so we have almost two-thirds of the performance. Synek is thrilling. There is no wobble or strain as she soars to beautiful top Bs and Cs. Tobin ducks the optional, more exposed top C towards the end of the second act, but proves himself worthy of such a Turandot with his manly, plangent singing. Hammes is lovely in her two Act Three arias and Groschel is a heartbreaking Timur. The sound is good with the leading singers' voices clearly heard (Altuom's voice can only be faintly heard; he must have been considerably upstage of the mic.) Any lovers of Turandot or the leading singers should have this disc!

Despite the preeminence of Birgit Nilsson, Turandots were in good supply in the Sixties. Here is Liane Synek, staking impressive credentials in the role that include a voice of unflagging refulgence and intelligence of comparable power. Many tenors would be obliterated by this force of nature but Eugene Tobin holds his ground as a stalwart Calaf. Liselotte Hammes' affecting Liu rounds out the trio of principals (hard to believe that her repertory also included Sophie in "Der Rosenkavalier"). Conductor Peter Lacovich guides the proceedings with flair.

Living in Cologne, I had the opportunity to regularly attend Liane Synek's performances on stage and to meet her a couple of times for dinner. Especially in the great lyrique roles of the italian bel canto that she is predestined for by the beauty of her timbre and her agile, balanced voice-leading. But she was also brilliant as a Wagner singer, for example as Senta and Isolde. Unfortunately, at that time, Birgit Nilsson was the Queen of Bayreuth and Liane Synek never got a chance to sing the great Wagner roles at the Festpielhaus.