Wolfgang Sawallisch was a specialist in Strauss and it is very evident in this performance. The singers not only sing more than capably, but create real characters as opposed to the cardboard characterizations usually heard in this opera. Canadian soprano Lilian Sukis may not be the most beautiful sounding Daphne (her voice has a rather uneven vibrato), yet she truly makes Daphne someone we care about. Listen to the way she shapes her long monologue at the end ("Unheilvolle Daphne!"); care has been taken to color the long lines specifically and she emerges as more touching in her grief than many another singer.Peter Lindroos didn't have a big career in North America. He didn't need to, Europe knew a good thing when they heard it. He matches James King in this role for beauty of tone and ease of singing it. Peter Schreier was known more for lieder and Mozart, but his Leukippos is excellent. He knocks out a great top C just before his demise. Ortrun Wenkel is one of the best Gaeas I've heard: rich, steady tone, terrific low notes. The rest of the cast is first rate though I'm not so sure that's Erika Köth as the First Maid.The sound is excellent throughout. There are a few lines missing in the Gaea/Daphne scene, fortunately after Gaea's monologue; the disc break is poorly chosen.All Strauss fans should hear this.

I have already had my tape recording of the opening night of the Munich Opera Festival since its broadcast on 7/10/1977 on radio, but I wanted to have it on CD. That proves how much I appreciate this performance in spite of all the others which have been released since then, e.g. Böhm, Haitink, Bychkov.Why? It is all about two singers rarely recorded: Lilian Sukis and Peter Lindroos. Even after listening to them after some time I am again deeply emotionally touched by their rendering. Lindroos gives lies to the wide-spread opinion that Strauss did not write well for tenors, because he sings Apollo effortlessly with a belcanto-like approach. His god is heroic and vulnerable at the same time. Sukis is pleasantly natural with a beautiful tone in all registers. The rest of the cast shows the high standard of the Munich Opera with Schreier, Wenkel and the orchestra, also present in Haitink's studio recording five years later, Nikolaus Hillebrand (Peneios), Nöcker, Orth and even Erika Köth. And there is Wolfgang Sawallisch - the outstanding conductor, not only for Strauss.So treat yourself to a great listening experience of bucolic tragedy.