Oberon is mostly known today by its Overture and Rezia's "Ocean, thou Mighty Monster" (in German, "Ozean, du Ungeheuer!"). Originally, it used spoken dialogue (and quite a lot of it) to carry the plot. Nowadays we usually hear concert versions of the opera with a narrator to connect the musical passages. In this performance, we get the dialogue (and quite a lot of it) and Puck as narrator to tell us what happens in the action/battle scenes.A young Rysanek is marvelous as Rezia. Her voice was lighter in 1953 than it became later on and she negotiates what little coloratura she is given very well. Her account of the big aria is thrilling. When she hits the top B-flat on "O Wonne!" your pulse begins to race as fast as Rezia's. She crowns it all with a thrilling top C.Her Hüon, Wilhelm Lückert, manages his "Von Jugend" aria with panache and easy high Bs (there are a bunch of them). Gisela Litz is a lovely Fatima and Horst Günther a stalwart Sherasmin. The actors who speak the dialogue should also be praised for their expert, very involved delivery, the pirates in the second act are especially ferocious. There are some imaginative sound effects too. Keilberth conducts to the manner born.The sound is excellent. I love the dialogue, but those who don't will be relieved that all of the tracks are cued to the music so if you want to skip the spoken parts you can easily do so.