Description:

Knowing that 1970 marked the latter part of Amy Shuard’s career, I approached this performance with tempered expectations. I was delighted to be proven wrong. Shuard delivers a compelling and vocally radiant Brünnhilde, culminating in one of the most sensitive renditions of “Ewig war ich” I’ve ever encountered—filled with warmth, vulnerability, and dramatic clarity.

Karl Josef Hering is one of the finest Siegfrieds you've probably never heard of. His bright, ringing tenor maintains a lyrical core throughout the opera’s demanding length, offering both heroic power and unexpected delicacy. David Ward, stepping in last-minute for an ailing Theo Adam, brings gravitas and vocal authority to the Wanderer. John Lanigan is a wiry, sharply etched Mime, while Zoltán Kélémen demonstrates precisely why he dominated the role of Alberich throughout the 1970s.

The sound is fair. There is some ghosting from another performance at the beginning of Act II, and the entire first scene of Act III is missing. It has been replaced with a 1963 performance featuring David Ward and Ruth Siewert, conducted by Georg Solti.

In Mono

OD 11357-3