What delighted me the most is the fine sound. I wish the Elektra from 1964 was in good sound, sadly it is not. That is a very important performance (Nilsson, Lindholm and Ericson) and deserves special treatment. This Lohengrin is excellent in every way. Gedda is superb, but he is set back on stage quite a bit and is not as present. It doesn't hurt anything. The beauty of his voice is fully present. What a Parsifal and Walther von Stolzing he would have been!Barbro Ericsson's Obtrude is superb. She as a beautiful, dark voice and cuts through the orchestra with ease. Nordmo-Løvberg had one of those stealy Scandinavian sopranos that she was very good at toning down for Elsa's quieter moments. Ingvar Wixell is a treat as the Heerrufer. The Telramund is quite good but I couldn't help wishing he and Wixell had exchanged roles. The orchestra is and chorus are excellent. Varviso was a very good conductor, a little perfunctory but that is fine in the opera house. He keeps things in order and moving along and never bogs down.A great addition to my Lohengrin stable.

Gedda only performed this run of Lohengrin, knowing that doing it too often would strain his voice. He is in great shape here, singing with plangent, ringing sound. He has the power and finesse for the role, not to mention the musicality. Nordmo-Lövberg also sings Elsa with lovely tone and an especially strong top register. Ericson is a marvelous Ortrud, biting into the words with venom and imagination. Her voice has interesting colors in it, similar to Irene Dalis. Jupither is an excellent Telramund. Rundgren and Wixell hold their end very well as the King and the Herald. The chorus and orchestra are not perhaps world class, but under Varviso's lively direction they perform effectively. The sound is excellent. Varviso tightens things up a bit with a few cuts (including the traditional big one in the last act), thus enabling Andy to get an act per disc with no interruptions in the music.Gedda fans must get this, of course, but Lohengrin lovers will enjoy it too.

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This was quite a find. The sound is very good. There are a couple of points were there is a small cut but otherwise very little to complain about. The main attraction is of course Nicolai Gedda in his only outing in Wagner. He is predictably at his best in the lyrical passages, but he also rises to the challenge of the more heroic parts. He sings beautifully throughout with a strong feeling for the text. How lucky we are to have this preserved!The other outstanding performances are from the Bayreuth veteran Barbro Ericson as a darkly dramatic Ortrud, who gives a spine-tingling account of 'Entweihte Götter!' and the young Ingvar Wixell as a strong-voiced herald. Aase Nordmo-Lövberg has a beautiful voice with more than enough heft for the role, but I found her Elsa a little bland and she tended to sing slightly under the note in the softer bits. Bengt Rundgren gives the king suitable gravitas but he is a rather stretched by the higher passages of this role - hardly the first bass to struggle with it. The Telramund was solid but unremarkable. Silvio Varviso may not be the most probing of conductors, but this is a taught reading with good dramatic pacing. The traditional cuts are observed, the orchestra is merely OK and the chorus sounds a bit out of tune at points (this might be due to unfavourable miking though).I don't think this would be a first-choice recording, but I would recommend this to all fans of Gedda and Lohengrin.

I have had this performance for more than thirty years from many soources, but the sound has never been this good. I purchased ten albums, but this was the best of all. I would say that the recordings was worth a great deal more than I paid.

This excellent performance of LOHENGRIN comes from apparently an air check of a performance given in Stockholm, at the Royal Opera House, January 29, 1966 (the Opera Depot flyer lists "Royal Opera House, Covent Garden," but I wonder if that is a misprint?). In any case, it is a spectacular performance in excellent sound, and, to my knowledge it has only appeared, briefly in the past, on the Ponto label (which I think no longer available).As might be imagined, Nicolai Gedda is a principle reason to acquire this set, and he does not disappoint at all. In fact, he is simply magnificent. His "In fernem Land, " of course, is a true high point, but elsewhere he is a real model of how a lyrical Lohengrin should sound, portraying the knights' feelings and views through superb streams of gorgeous music.But then there is Aase Nordmo-Lovberg as Elsa, and artist not that familiar to me (although she sang at Bayreuth). Her voice reminds me a bit of Elisabeth Grummer, with its shimmering, silverly tone. She does extremely well.And the rest of the cast is strong, in particular Barbro Ericson's Ortrud and Bengt Rundgren's Heinrich and Rolf Jupither's Teleramund.Thus, this is a treasurable performance, superb in every way.

A must for both Gedda and Lohengrin - fans

Wonderful performance. I bought it to hear Gedda but the whole cast is super.

An interesting though flawed performance, heavily cut, with lightweight conducting and a very poor chorus. Gedda is well worth hearing but the highlight for me was Aase Nordmo-Lovberg as a really compelling Elsa sung with a much bigger voice than normally associated with this role and in total command.