As Andy writes above, this performance makes an excellent case for opera in the vernacular and why we should never be ashamed of it. The translation used stays close to the German and is quite elegant by itself, matching the tone of Hofmannsthal's original German.The singers range from spectacular to struggling. Janet Baker is thrilling as the composer, singing with beautiful tone from top to bottom and creating a sympathetic, if lovably neurotic, Composer. Nan Christie's Zerbinetta is brilliant, crowned with lovely high D's and E's in her aria. She even attempts the impossible trill on the high D when Strauss asks for it. The supporting cast are all exceptional singers and bring their roles to life.Helge Dernesch has a devil of a time with Ariadne's top range. Individual notes will emerge triumphantly, but the tessitura is too high for her at this point in her career. She switched to mezzo less than a year later and continued her career for over twenty years. Kenneth Woolam isn't bad; he gets all his notes, but sounds a little in over his head. The sound is great with no glitches that I could hear. The audience really enjoys the shenanigans of Zerbinetta and the Boys.Highly recommended to all Strauss and Opera-in-English lovers.

Janet Baker was born to portray Strauss' young Composer, as this Scottish Opera production (captured in demonstration-quality broadcast stereo) proves. Not only does the role sit just right for her, she sings "off the words," giving the text a loving caress. Hers is the best diction in this English-language performance. Her Music Master, Malcolm Donnelly, is sympathetically world weary, Nan Christie is a capable Zerbinetta and her four companions are an excellent group. Unfortunately, matters devolve when we are transported to Naxos. Helga Dernesch's instrument rumbles powerfully through the middle and lower registers, but high notes are desperate lunges. Between Kenneth Woolam's charmless and gummy-voiced Bacchus, and Dernesch's upper-register struggles, the Bacchus/Ariadne duet is an endurance contest. Norman Del Mar takes a sprawling approach to the score ... not the best idea under the circumstances.

I was working in the theatre for a period including this production, but not present on the night this was broadcast live. The great deficiency was simply that Alberto Remedios had to cancel -- what he did in the role can be heard in a recording from the Met with Caballe. Almost certainly this was Dernesch's best performance during the run, she was a victim of what Nicolai Gedda refers to as Karajan's habitual regarding singers as disposable commodities and she should not have sung Isolde, even with the incredible care manifest on a recording available from this site. Much to be preferred in the role was the alternate, Linda Esther Gray, whose career was cut short. She was a great Isolde too, as well as stunning in this role. Baker was an even better actress than a singer, and as regards the comment about soprano roles I remember from when she retired the account of her problem, which was an unusually wide break, or passagio, so that she had originally to decide between trying for a career as high soprano, with problems as the voice approached the mezzo and contralto range, or (as she did) a career as mezzo-soprano, with a great deal of work on the problematic middle range. When it started to widen she could sing soprano songs, occasionally, but the middle was too problematic. Ms. Gray retired following problems due to abdominal surgery. Her Isolde with Remedios under Goodall was an amazing experience. He merely had some sort of throat infection, which was bothering him on the performance two days before the broadcast one. He thought it might be catarrh and in fact (it would now be illegal) came on stage smoking a cigarette, as if that was part of the role. Norman White was particularly good among the singers of smaller parts (in his case a somewhat inflated one, padded out as a fat man). Nan Christie was remarkable -- the ideal earthy coloratura, with displays of sisterly concern for the distressed heroine.

Excellent