Good solid cast!

The problem with this recording from La Fenice is the balance between the singers and the orchestra. The technicians have placed the microphones in the wrong places so that the singers are heard far behind the orchestra which doesn't give them a chance to be heard in a decent way. You cannot judge them and their voice quality. You must listen in a very focused way to hear them! Doing that you can hear some great singing here. Gunilla af Malmborg (1933-2014) was for 30 years one of the leading dramatic sopranos at the Royal Opera in Stockholm. She had the biggest voice I have ever heard! Bigger than Nilsson's but without the latter's famous brilliance. She worked in the shadows of Nilsson and Lindholm and sang all their dramatic roles in a very impressive way: Isolde, Brünnhilde, Salome, Elektra, Turandot, Färberin, Medea, Tosca... I heard her in all these roles. She guested opera houses abroad: Kiel, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, München, Köln, Leipzig, Augsburg, Genua, Napoli, Venice, Monte Carlo, Bordeaux, Nancy, Vancouver, Toronto, Moscow and Glyndebourne. in 1975 she sang Brünnhilde in a complete Ring at the Bolshoi. After her last performance in Stockholm she received the seldom given Royal Opera's Gold Medal. I can recommend this Tristan from Venice for concentrated listening only. For a more fair judgement of af Malmborg look for: Gunilla af Malmborg, soprano. Great Swedish singers. Bluebell ABCD 107. 2008. (Liebestod and the final scene from Salome are included).