This item reached me in mint state, however with some delay due to someadditional duties compulsory for delivery. Thanks a lot again for allowing me to discover this absolute rarity !

Not a great opera but what a cast! Words are clear but try to get a libretto because the music is mostly subservient to the drama.

Andy agains comes up with a very rare performance to enjoy. I knew nothing about this opera, but enjoyed it. The cast was well chosen. If you're looking for something off the beaten path, take a look at Kabale und Liebe.

Despite a great cast / conductor (even though one should have dissuaded the great Martha Mödl to expose herself this way at this stage of her illustrious career!) the piece itself is such a derivative waste of time! Only for hardcore fans of …???

Having recently discovered Danton's Tod, I wanted to check out other von Einem works. I bought this and really enjoyed it. The performance is very persuasive and the cast is quite marvelous. I find so many 20th century operas to be rather unsingable, thus unlistenable. von Einem really allows the singers to use their voices in a very vocal way. All of these singers are strong singing actors so that their performances really register as living characters. Ideally a libretto would be helpful but without that I still enjoyed this experience and recommend the recording both for the work and the singers.

A striking find. Von Einem creates electric dialogue-in-music, supported by vigorous, atmospheric orchestral writing. A distinguished multigenerational cast delivers vivid character portraits. Not every voice is easy on the ear exactly, but this is hardly bel canto. As a strait-laced bourgeois mother who knows her station, the legendary Marta Mödl turns her battle-scarred instrument to expressive advantage. The source, of course, is the same Schiller play that Verdi adapted, more freely and in his own language, as Luisa Miller. The heroine, a courageous innocent beset by manipulators, finds an ideal interpreter in Anja Silja, who projects simplicity of heart, quiet despair, and ultimately an understated yet radiant clarity of purpose. Brigitte Fassbaender shines in a more glamorous mode as her aristocratic rival. In the role of Ferdinand, the man these ladies love, the baritone Bernd Weikl bears an uncanny resemblance in timbre, attack, and accent to the young Jonas Kaufmann, difference in Fach be damned. The sound quality is high, with excellent balance between the stage and the pit—so much so that a listener conversant with German should be able follow the opera as easily as a radio play.

While there is little or no frame of reference for this work (unless one wants to evaluate it as a "remake" of Verdi's LUISA MILLER), this opera shows that Gottfried von Einem hadn't lost a step after his hit opera THE VISIT. As was customary with von Einem premieres, the Vienna State Opera fielded an all-star cast. Everyone enters into the spirit of the occasion, although the power and expression of Hans Beirer (age 65) is particularly arresting. The recorded sound -- in sumptuous stereo -- is absolutely fantastic, immersing you in von Einem's distinctive sonic world. Run, do not walk to obtain this, one of the three best recordings I have purchased from Opera Depot. (The others were a Ruth Welting LAKMÉ and a Marilyn Horne ITALIANA IN ALGERI.)

This is a rare document of the Vienna première of "Kabale und Liebe," in 1976. Where, in the course of the last century, could be found such a cast for a new opera? Hans Beirer, Bernd Weikl, Anja Silja (astonishing as Luise), Martha Mödl, Brigitte Faßbaender, and Walter Berry, as well as Heinz Zednik, conducted by Christoph von Dohnányi.Absolutely astonishing, and highly recommended!