The singers in this Gelsenkirchen Tristan und Isolde are all excellent, especially Schröder-Feinen who is probably the raison d'etre for this release. She gives a tremendously good performance, singing with power and beauty; nothing in the role fazes her. There are other Isoldes who are more imaginative in their handling of the text, but few who sing with such steady, sure tone from top to bottom. It's worth the cost of the set just to hear her.Brenneis has an attractive, steady voice that is a couple of shades too light for the role. I have to hand it to him though: he sings an uncut Act Three very well. Raffell was an underrated South African baritone with a masculine sheen to his voice. He is a first-rate Kurwenal. Similarly, Polish bass Saciuk sings a beautiful Marke. Voorwelt contributes a strong, detailed Brangäne who sings her offstage Watch with a rich mezzo-soprano. Romansky leads with a firm, flexible hand and only makes the standard cut in the Act Two duet.The sound is acceptable with the voices clearly heard though I wanted to strangle the tapist for jostling the mic around so much during the opening prelude and during part of Act One. The big caveat though (and I'm surprised no other commentator has mentioned this) is that the last 10-12 minutes of Act One are missing. Disc 1 concludes just as the lovers have taken the love potion and disc 2 begins with Act 2 - what happened? Fans of Schröder-Feinen must have this set.

SOUND not good. Artist. Medium .

I really enjoyed this performance. I was not familiar with most of the performers and I found them very good. Brenneis does a good job with Tristan but I bought the recording for Schroeder-Feinen. She is marvelous. I would't say she is the best Isolde I ever heard but she is very good indeed. Her sound is bright and quite effortless. She is committed to the drama and at times, is quite fiery. It is a shame her career didn't last very long and that she wasn't afforded more opportunities to sing Isolde but I glad there is this preservation of her talent.

It is a very good Tristan actually and interesting is to hear what was possible in small opera house in small city (Gelsenkirchen) in 1974. Schroeder-Feinen is comfortable and she does wonderful job as Isolde. Brenneis is very fine, qiute powerful Tristan. Rest of the cast is competent, however not particulary special ot notewhorty. Conducting of Bulgarian conductor Ljubomir Romansky is nice with good dynamics. Orchestra and conductor interact very well, playing is balanced, but after all in 1974 he was Generalmusikdirektor in Gelsenkirchen for some 7 years, so they knew eachother very well.