Why not? Can´t be worse than Wilde´s play Salome in german (which does not say, that the translation isn´t really good!), and it can certainly not be worse than Hoffmannsthal´s even then more than slightly dusty german. I ordered this out of curiosity - and was by no means disappointed. Armstrong conducts this piece with real confidence and conviction; Tinsley is really good for the most part (sometimes I had to think of Berlioz´"law" for his students: "Never trust a soprano with an important text", but really only at some few points). and Norman Bayley ist just an outstanding Barak. This is a very welcome addition to my collection (Salome I own not only in german, but in italian, swedish, french and english as well), I just could not resist. And its really very listenable. It would not be my first choice (if banned to an island and only allowed to take along a certain number ... and so on; this would still be Böhm, Vienna, 1985), but I´m glad to have it now and highly recommend it ... at least as an addition to one or another recording in the original language.

I saw this production in Coventry when WNO toured it across the UK and still have strong visual memories of a basic, but very effective staging. WNO managed to assemble a stellar cast from (with the exception of Katsu) home grown talent, showing what a depth of resource opera had in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s. All the performances are committed, strong and vocally persuasive: Tinsley is as characterful and tireless as ever as the Dyer's Wife, and Bailey is a warmly communicative Barak, both singing with great insight and strength. Anne Evans, then on her way to Brunnhilde, is a silvery Empress with deep reserves of power for the awakening scene. Patricia Payne really makes her mark as the Nurse and commands the huge range of the part with ease and if Katsu is a little wooden vocally, maybe that suits the part! All the minor parts are well filled (with a gourgeous tenor for the Apparition) and the orchestra plays superbly well under Richard Armstrong. Reservations? Well, the words do not always come across as clearly as you would like (Tinsley sadly at fault here) but maybe the blame lies with Strauss, rather than the singers. Having said that, it is a good translation, of which I have a copy and this is the only Frau in English ever likely to be available. I think it is wonderful, and well worth exploring. Sound is excellent.

This is an outstanding performance of Die Frau ohne Scatten, thanks mainly to Norman Bailey’s warm, noble and moving Barak (on a par with his great portrayals of Hans Sachs, Wotan and Jupiter), Pauline Tinsley’s characteristically ardent, intense and charismatic performance as Barak’s wife, and Anne Evans’s warm, feminine, poised and precise Empress. Patricia Payne and Geoffrey Moses are also strong as the Nurse and the Spirit Messenger. Although Matti Katsu is no match for the likes of Jess Thomas, James King, Ben Heppner, Plácido Domingo, or (in the 1989 revival of this great production) Jeffrey Lawton, he manages not to let the side down. Indeed, he sounds considerably better here than in some of his other Strauss recordings. Richard Armstrong’s conducting is as assured and well judged as ever – sadly, far too little of his outstanding work for the WNO and Scottish Opera has remained available. The recording is warm, spacious and clear, allowing the performance to come across very vividly and intelligibly. Highly recommended to all Straussians and Wagnerites. Robert Bideleux