Overall, very good. Jones being the standout.

Stein leads his forces through an exciting performance of the final work in Wagner's Ring cycle. Everyone sings and acts very well. In her first Brunnhilde for Bayreuth Jones is tremendous. The voice is better controlled than it would be in later cycles. From a glistening top C at the end of the Dawn Duet to a thrilling Immolation scene Jones shows that she has it all. Her singing of the "Ruhe, du Gott" is some of the most beautiful I've ever heard from her. Then captures Brunnhilde's determination in the final "Fliegt heim, ihr Raben" section with such flair that the many B-flats pour out of her effortlessly. She also has an enviable trill and a terrifying scream.Cox is less remarkable although always dependable. His death scene is very moving. Ridderbusch sings so beautifully as Hagen that he almost makes the entire opera about him. Mazura and Randova are stand-outs as the Gibichungs and Reynolds (no relation as far as I know) contributes a very impressive Waltraute. The Norns and Rhinedaughters are first-class all the way.Andy tells us this is from an improved source. The sound is excellent throughout. There are a few bars missing from the top of Act Two, but that is my only quibble.

All the singers are very good, and the conductor (Horst Stein) is excellent. Let's focus on the real main character of this piece, which is HAGEN. (Siegfried, Brunhilde, Gunther, and Gutrune are just props, relative to him.) In most of his performances, Karl Ridderbusch almost always sounds like a friendly, jolly fellow, or, sometimes, like a deep-feeling lover, not like Hagen. I've heard several recordings featuring him as Hagen and I almost always come away feeling disappointed. But tonight is an exception. He's not OBVIOUSLY evil-sounding, but he's certainly evil, it's just more subtle than a lot of more typical Hagens like Josef Greindl and Gottlob Frick and Ludwig Weber and Matti Salminen, whose voices proclaim "EVIL!" the moment they open their mouths. Ridderbusch here is like a malicious robot rather than a motivated schemer. (Think of HAL, the computer in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.) Once you accept him on that level, it works surprisingly well, even heightens the sense of the character's ruthlessness and willingness to follow a long-term plan and wait patiently for the result. Klaus Hirte is an unusual Alberich: lighter and thinner-sounding than most. But it's not a problem, just different, certainly interesting enough to keep my attention during his small scene.Franz Mazura is excellent as always. The women are fine; Jean Cox is adequate and feeling if not huge. So on the whole this is a performance which any GDAM fan should own.