Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen
1953 Recording

Hans Hotter (Wotan/Wanderer), Hermann Uhde (Donner/Gunther), Gerhard Stolze (Froh), Erich Witte (Loge), Ludwig Weber (Fasolt), Josef Greindl (Fafner/Hunding/Hagen), Gustav Neidlinger (Alberich), Paul Kuën (Mime), Ira Malaniuk (Fricka/Waltraute), Bruni Falcon (Freia/Ortlinde), Maria von Ilosvay (Erda/Schwertleite/1. Norn), Erika Zimmermann (Woglinde), Hetty Plümacher (Wellgunde), Gisela Litz (Flosshilde/Siegrune), Ramón Vinay (Siegmund), Regina Resnik (Sieglinde/3. Norn), Astrid Varnay (Brünnhilde), Brünnhild Friedland (Gerhilde), Lise Sorrell (Waltraute), Liselotte Thomamüller (Helmwige), Sibylla Plate (Grimgerde), Erika Schubert (Rossweisse), Wolfgang Windgassen (Siegfried), Rita Streich (Waldvogel) & Natalie Hinsch-Gröndahl (Gutrune)

Chor und Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele, Clemens Krauss

Clemens Krauss appeared for only one year at the Bayreuth Festival, yet he had conducted several Richard Strauss premières and held the reins, at the peak of his career, of both the Bavarian and Vienna State Operas as well as the Salzburg Festival. Krauss’ first Ring should have been the beginning of a magnificent era, that it was not, was due to his tragic death in Mexico in the spring of 1954 during a concert tour.

Krauss’ work with the Festival’s Sängerensemble gave a much-needed shake-up, with new blood in certain important roles. Hence Wolfgang Windgassen, having debuted at the Festival as Parsifal and as Froh, sang both Siegfried instalments in 1953, rising to peak form in the third act of Götterdämmerung, making the role his own. Gerhard Stolze, powerful of tone and clear of articulation, was to follow similar heroic paths. As Mime, Paul Kuën was sought-after from Munich to the Met as well as in Bayreuth, where with playful facility he found the path through Hans Knappertsbusch’s epic breadth, Joseph Keilberth’s chamber-opera transparency and Krauss’ thrusting impulsiveness alike. The same goes for Gustav Neidlinger as Alberich: a monolithic vocal presence and expressive power virtually beyond equal. As his stage progeny Hagen, Josef Greindl was setting his own personal crown on a Festival season where his contribution as König Heinrich in the opening night’s Lohengrin was as instrumental as his Fafner and Hunding on the Ring’s earlier evenings. And, after a year’s warm-up, Hans Hotter too had become a genuine institution on the green hill. Ira Malaniuk, with her mellifluous mezzo-soprano had become firmly established at Bayreuth after deputising as Fricka a year earlier. Few would have guessed in 1953 that she would be followed as Fricka by Regina Resnik, at the time still very much a soprano, albeit with a naturally sensual and dark vocal colour. Erstwhile baritone Ramón Vinay was garnering acclaim as both Parsifal and Siegmund, having triumphed as Tristan the previous year. Astrid Varnay was one of his two partners that summer, en passant as Ortrud and Brünnhilde, making her mark at last as the most flexible dramatic soprano of her generation. Here was a real ensemble at work, as attested by the total commitment of such artistes as Ludwig Weber, Hermann Uhde - luxury casting as Donner and Gunther - Erich Witte's nimble Loge, Natalie Hinsch-Gröndahl's Gutrune or Rita Streich's vivacious Woodbird. The sound balance pleased Krauss from the off as it emanated from the concealed orchestra pit - as it at last does now, unoccluded, transferred to CD from the original tapes, - although his taut tempi and nuances, here filigree-painted, there crushingly-accented, at times come at the cost of fine co-ordination with the stage. This, however, enhances the vitality of the live recording and it remains eminently regrettable, in the context of ‘Werkstatt Bayreuth’, that Krauss only had the summer of 1953 to shape his sound-vision of Wagner's music dramas in the ‘sacred place’.

el sello Orfeo reprocesa y reedita el Anillo de 1953 de Clemens Krauss

suena como a reedición superimportante

¿noto cierta guasa en esa última afirmación?

Yo creo que es un aviso a navegantes. Reedición muy importante.

y creo que notablemente más barata

seguimos de guasa?

Rolando Villazon (Don Carlo), Marina Poplavskaya (Elisabetta di Valois), Simon Keenlyside (Rodrigo), Ferruccio Furlanetto (Philip II), Sonia Ganassi (Princess Eboli), Pumeza Matshikiza (Tebaldo), Nikola Matisic (Conte di Lerma), Eric Halfvarson (Grand Inquisito), Robert Lloyd (Monk) & Anita Watson (Voice from Heaven)

Orchestra & Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Antonio Pappano

National Theatre director Nicholas Hytner’s new staging of Verdi’s grandest – and arguably greatest – opera, Don Carlo, was the highlight of the 2007/2008 Royal Opera House season. This new production marked Rolando Villazón’s much anticipated, triumphant return to the house.



Angela Gheorghiu (Marguerite), Roberto Alagna (Faust), Bryn Terfel (Méphistophélès), Simon Keenlyside (Valentin) & Sophie Koch (Siébel)

Orchestra & Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Antonio Pappano (conductor) & David McVicar (director)

David McVicar's spectacular 2004 production of Gounod’s Faust, featuring a divine cast of opera’s superstars: Roberto Alagna, Angela Gheorghiu, Bryn Terfel, Simon Keenlyside and Sophie Koch.




Angela Gheorghiu, Roberto Alagna, Lisette Oropesa & Marius Brenciu

Orchestra & Chorus of the Metropolitan Opera, New York, Marco Armiliato

Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna star in the 2009 Metropolitan Opera production of Puccini’s La Rondine (The Swallow). This new production, directed by Nicholas Joël, was the company’s first staging in 70 years.

This elegant romance is the least-known work of the mature Giacomo Puccini. The story concerns a kept woman who defies convention to chase a dream of romantic love with an earnest, if naïve, young man. This Met Opera production features the dynamic soprano Angela Gheorghiu and Frenchborn tenor Roberto Alagna performing the roles of Magda and Ruggero, it blooms into its rightful place in the glorious Puccini canon.

La Rondine (The Swallow) was commissioned by Vienna’s Carltheater in 1913. Due to the impending outbreak of World War I, premiered in 1917, at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo with Gilda Dalla Rizza and Tito Schipa. Set in a Parisian salon, it is the story of Magda, the glamorous mistress of wealthy banker Rambaldo. Her yearning for romantic love compels her into the arms of the ardent and adoring young Ruggero.
McVicar is one of the most innovative and in-demand directors, and his lush, haunting realised vision of Faust received glorious praise. The production revels in a gothic, seamy Second French Empire setting, with the Act V ballet “haunting the imagination long after” (The Independent).

Qué fuerte, con este que se anuncia va a haber dos Don Carlo en dvd con Villazón.

si ese dvd de la Emi corresponde con las funciones de hace dos años (o tres, ya me falla la memoria), el mexicano las cantó con la garganta hecha fosfatina. a saber qué sale de ahí.

el resto del reparto... la Elisabetta floja. y lo demás, bastante bueno (incluido FF).

Ese Fausto es-de-an-to-lo-gí-a. Brutal!

El terremoto Villazón. Ahora vendran las replicas.

El Fausto de Alagna ya lo habia escuchado. Me gusta.

Pero Terfel está en plan destroyer, eh...

Bueno, es lo que le va a la magnífica producción de McVicar. Pero el estilo ni de lejos, claro.

El Faust es einteresante. Esa Rondine es un pálido reflejo de la grabación de años antes.

Bueno me agenciaré ese Fausto a ver... me da morbete, pero, eso sí, sin soltar un marevedí