One doesn't normally think of Gwyneth Jones as a Prima Donna/Ariadne, but one would be wrong. She's very funny as the self-important Prima Donna and sometimes sublime as Ariadne. Other sopranos have sung more beautifully, but few have her urgency, her sense of line. She is marvelous in the last 15 minutes or so. Josef Hopferwieser is good, if not great, singing with steady tone, but little expansiveness on top; he was better in other roles.Edita Gruberova is simply superb as Zerbinetta, tossing off the intricate coloratura effortlessly and yet using it all as part of the character. This was recorded before she began the bad habit of sliding from pitch to pitch and shows her at her best. Trudeliese Schmidt is an equally wonderful Composer with some wonderful high B-flats (a tragedy she died so young). The supporting cast is made up of excellent München regulars and Sawallisch leads the opera with strength and love.This was obviously taken from an in-house tape. I'd love it more if it had been a broadcast, yet though the voices can sound a little recessed this gives one a better idea of what the singers sounded like in the house. More annoying to me was the very obvious pitch discrepancy between the two discs. Disc 1 ends with the piano chord that begins Zerbinetta's big aria. Disc 2 begins with the same chord - and the two don't match. Everyone sounds like themselves, but this should've been fixed before release.

If you're not a fan of Dame Gwyneth Jones (taking a busman's holiday in the title role) or of Edita Gruberova, you might want to give this "Ariadne" a pass. The recessed sound is a drawback; there are places where Jones is almost inaudible, which was never the case in the theater. She is marvelous with Ariadne's delicate writing and, although occasionally blowsy, usually just as admirable in the rapturous passages. Gruberova is her accustomed, witty self as Zerbinetta and manages to make the role sound easy, but there are myriad recordings of her in this part. Bacchus' high tessitura holds no terrors for Josef Hopferwieser, who specialized in Strauss' tenor roles. Trudeliese Schmidt is a plummy, heartfelt Composer, tonally reminiscent of Tatiana Troyanos. Wolfgang Sawallisch leads a fleet reading of the score that minimizes its longueurs. Harlekin and the rest of the supporting cast are average or below-average for their parts.

For fans of Gwyneth Jones – she is excellent. Unfortunately the recorded quality is not that wonderful – rather boomy and characters further back on the stage are not well heard. Though Gruberova is the best Zerbinetta I’ve ever seen in the flesh she is not caught at her best here. Schmidt as the composer is adequate but the rest of the cast sound like the 2nd division – the Bacchus more like the 3rd division. Disappointing overall.