La actuación, buena como siempre.

In this year I was in Bayreuth watching the Ring live. It was great performances of almost everyone in an quite sober environment. (Chereau was the next director with a sensational new approach in Bayreuth, Wolfgang (from Wieland who had died) Wagner had taken a minimalistic approach. I liked both.)The sound quality is not sooo great. (I knew a sound engineer then, the sound recording was never set up for publication. Only some "totals" microphones.) Some interruptions, some sudden jumps..., tapes these days were finite... But it triggers my memory of another aera of conducting and swinging with the composer. The softness of a live performance of the 70s is different from the high fidelity recordings these days even if live and it's really better for my heart. That's why it's Excellent.

This was the last year of Wolfgang Wagner's Ring production and, in a sense, the last year of the Neu Bayreuth when the festival was resuscitated back in 1951. The next year brought a terrific, but radically different approach to the Ring and the other Wagner operas that continues to this day. Some of the singers and conductors remained, but mostly there were new people with new ideas.Jones is excellent in her first outing as all three Brünnhildes. Both she and McIntyre would figure prominently in the Chereau Ring and in the world of Wagner in general. All the other singers had sung their roles in Bayreuth before and were, perhaps, even more polished this year because of their experience. Stein maintains a steady pace for the four operas, one that doesn't dawdle or rush. It was one the orchestra would have appreciated (as they didn't Boulez's the next year).The sound is mostly very good though as David M. below says it sounds patched together from various sources. There is in all four operas (but most obviously in Das Rheingold and Götterdämmerung) a tendency for the sound to jump ahead several beats or bars. It doesn't happen that often, but it should be mentioned.If you collect Bayreuth Rings, all of them from 1970 to 1975 are excellent (they're all available from Opera Depot). I'd recommend the 1970-72 cycles first. If you enjoy those you'll like this one too.

1975.It was a busy year for Wolfgang Wagner. The final year is the ring that has been going on since 1970. Stein, who has been conducting for a long time, is completely and can be said to be the total settlement of Bayreuth after the war.This year, Stein's Parsifal, Hollreiser's Meistersinger, and Kleiber's Tristan all had excellent sound quality, and I enjoyed the live performance that can be said to be the total settlement of Bayreuth after the war ❗

Even as one enjoys this RING cycle, it is with the sad knowledge that new brooms at Bayreuth were about to sweep many of its principals away. Two standout eliminations are those of James King, an unsurpassable Siegmund, and Gustav Neidlinger, whose Alberich at age 65 sounds as fresh and impassioned as it did 20 years earlier. Conductor Horst Stein, who leads a thrilling performance, would remain a fixture of the Green Hill but never lead another RING cycle. This set also preserves some valuable but under-documented singing, such as Marita Napier's Sieglinde. Of those cast members who would go on to prominence in 1976's mold-shattering RING, Gwyneth Jones is in magnificent form, singing from the depths of her soul and clear through the middle of every note. Donald McIntuyre is a Licht-Alben sort of Wotan, but one of high verbal acuity. Heinz Zednik is already a masterly Mime and Franz Mazura demonstrates why he was Bayreuth's Gunther of choice. Of those whose RING tenure would be either over or abbreviated, Karl Ridderbusch holds down Fafner, Hunding and Hagen in mellow-toned fashion where sometimes one wishes for greater incision. Jean ***'s Siegfried is a solid, generic, reliable sort but the unvarying color of his Heldentenor palls. Eva Randova's cloudy Gutrune aside, there are no overt weaknesses. The sound is mostly excellent broadcast mono, caulked with patches from an inferior source -- hence the missing star. Still, this is not a cycle with which I would part.

Excellent. I bought this for personal reasons as I had attended the Bayreuth festival in 1974 and found an opportunity to own a recording with an almost identical cast. The 1974 version is available on CD, it there is one problem in the casting. After Berit Lindholm left Bayreuth in 1973, evidently Wolfgang Wagner had great trouble finding a Brunnhilde for 1974. That year, Roberta Knie was booed off the stage in Walkure, then two days later, Brenda Roberts was booed off the stage in Siegfried. The audience was fearful. But then two days later, Gwyneth Jones gave a magnificent performance in Gotterdammerung. Wagner must have rushed backstage to sign Jones on for all three Brunnhildes for 1975. No disrespect intended for the other two sopranos, but the 1975 version is just better than the one I saw the previous year. So by getting the 75 version, I am hearing what I should have heard in 74. Everyone is fantastic. I just want to make special note of Jean ***, who sang both Siegfrieds from 1970 to 1975, taking over from the retired Wolfgang Windgassen. He was magnificent. Just listen to that voice. In 74 I heard him sing in the Ring and in Die Meistersinger. I guess what I don't understand is why he was never as popular as other heldentenors, like Jess Thomas, James King, Manfred Jung, etc. oh well. This is not a studio recording so the orchestra and sound in general is muffled. Also there are some tape problems with jolting hiccups here and there. But this is a great historical document of great artists. Recommended.