Those who are familiar with Goodall's Wagner recordings from the ENO know that his tempi could be glacial. That doesn't really happen here. Yes, Goodall takes a more leisurely approach to the score, but I never got the feeling as I sometimes did with his other performances that Time was standing still. Nothing seems dragged out.His singers are terrific. David Ward is a fine Wotan and George Shirley a delectable Loge (a few phrases of his role get lost towards the end where the tape probably had to be turned over). Veasey shows why she was so well-regarded as Fricka. The young Jeannine Altmeyer is a lovely Freia. Kélémen was always an intense Alberich sung with his very distinctive voice. Payne sings an appropriately mysterious Erda with her rich contralto. Lloyd and Salminen stand out as the giants. Dobson, Tear, and Herincx are luxury casting in their roles. The Rhinedaughters are some of the best I've ever heard with Masterson shining on Woglinde's top line, Knight standing out on Flosshilde's contralto line, and Harrhy singing almost as high and as low as either of them as Wellgunde.The sound was taken from either an in-house or backstage tape so the voices are a little recessed. I didn't find it a deterrent to my enjoyment, but others might be frustrated. The disc breaks are a little dicey and could've been better managed.An eight minute interview with Goodall is included after the opera. Alan Blyth tries to get him to describe how his interpretation of the Ring has changed, but isn't successful.Onto Die Walküre!

The performance is wonderful, but the singer/orchestra balance is very poor and there are two small passages missing - how did that happen?

This is an excellent performance of Das Rheingold if you are a Goodall fan - tempi are slow and dramatic impulse sometimes lacking. Much to enjoy, though, in both playing and singing. If the voices are sometimes a bit drowned by the orchestra, this is how it sounds in the opera house! Nothing worse than over-miked voices in a recording studio with an orchestra seemingly in a room down the corridor. A warning about the sound - considerable background noise when played even at a moderate volume, and some acoustic blips here and there. The ENO live recording a better overall bet if you just want a single version of Goodall's Rhinegold (in English, a very good singing version).

This is a very nice RHEINGOLD, especially the giants: Robert Lloyd as Fasolt, and YOUNG Matti Salminen as Fafner. I enjoyed it very much. Only one problem: as so often happens with OperaDepot's recordings, the orchestra is often too loud relative to the singers. Not Andy's fault; it's a recording-artifact.