This is an enjoyable performance of an opera I was not familiar with. I bought it because I love Konya and I was not disappointed. Kubelik leads a spirited performance and the cast is strong. I was not bothered that the performance was in German and not Czech. The sound is excellent. I highly recommend this recording.

Thanks to Kubelik, the orchestral contribution on this recording as is idiomatic as can be expected. I wish I could say the singing was as idiomatic as the orchestra, but that wouldn’t be possible, even if they were singing in Czech—this is a largely German and Hungarian cast, and the Czech language seems to cause more problems for singers than almost any other.Elsie Morison sounds far too old (and wobbly) to be Jitka; Nienstedt as Vladislav II is her opposite, singing steadily and perhaps too strongly; Vladislav’s supposed to be a rather weak and ineffectual monarch, but there’s not really any weakness in Nienstedt’s voice. Felicia Weathers as Milada is good, but she overdoes it a bit in the vocal-acting department. Franz Crass is very, very good. The smaller roles (Vítek, the Judge and Budivoj) are well-taken. Horst Wilhelm’s Vítek is particularly good; he’s better than every other singer I’ve heard in the (somewhat thankless) role, save perhaps Beno Blachut in an ultra-rare early 1940s recording.Sándor Kónya is the best singer of the lot. Even if he can’t erase memories of Beno Blachut's 1950 interpretation, my gold standard, he does conjure fond memories of his Lohengrin interpretations, playing Dalibor more on the lyric than the heroic side. The sound quality is very good for its age. There’s a little distortion in loud passages, and the singers are sometimes too forwardly placed. There is also one minor (about 2 second) sound fallout in Act 2. Recommended.

Have never heard Dalibor, but bought it for Sandor Konya—one of my favorite tenors. Was not disappointed.