This is a 31-year retrospective (1956–1987) of great Wagner singing on Decca and Deutsche Grammophon featuring fourteen extracts from nine operas with seven great singers. Wagner’s heroines make for some of the most pivotal moments in his operas and this anthology highlights almost every aspect of his women – suspicious and inflexible (Fricka, here taken from a recital recording by Regina Resnik), redeeming (Elisabeth and Brünnhilde), passionate (Sieglinde), transfigured (Isolde). We hear the great voices of Joan Sutherland (who sang a number of Wagnerian roles before establishing her incomparable reputation in the ‘bel canto’ repertoire), her idol, Kirsten Flagstad (here singing Kundry), Flagstad’s Scandinavian successor Birgit Nilsson (in two of the greatest opera scenes – Isolde’s Liebstod and Brünnhilde’s Immolation) and at the start of this recording, the splendidly Italianate singing of Susan Dunn as Elisabeth and Sieglinde. The illuminating notes on the music and the singers are by Wagner scholar Peter Bassett and the booklet includes a photo gallery of the singers.
RICHARD WAGNER
Tannhäuser:
Dich, teure Halle
Die Walküre:
Der Männer Sippe saß hier im Saal
Du bist der Lenz
Susan Dunn
Tannhäuser
Allmächt’ge Jungfrau
Lohengrin:
Einsam in trüben Tagen
Euch Lüften, die mein Klagen
Gundula Janowitz
Rienzi:
Gerechter Gott … In seiner Blüthe
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg:
O Sachs! Mein Freund!
Joan Sutherland
Parsifal:
Ich sah das Kind
Kirsten Flagstad
Der fliegende Holländer:
Johohoe! … Traft ihr das Schiff im Meere an
Gwyneth Jones
Die Walküre:
So ist es denn
Tristan und Isolde:
Einsam wachend in der Nacht
Regina Resnik
Mild und leise wie er lächelt
Götterdämmerung:
Mein Erbe nun nehm’ ich zu eigen
Birgit Nilsson
Richard Bonynge
Riccardo Chailly
Edward Downes
Hans Knappertsbusch
Ferdinand Leitner
Argeo Quadri
Georg Solti
Recording Producers: Christopher Raeburn (Susan Dunn); Hans Weber (Gundula Janowitz); Richard Beswick (Joan Sutherland); Peter Andry (Kirsten Flagstad): Erik Smith (Gwyneth Jones); Ray Minshull (Regina Resnik: Fricka); John Culshaw (Regina Resnik: Brangäne; Birgit Nilsson)
Balance Engineers: James Lock (Susan Dunn); Hans-Peter Schweigmann (Gundula Janowitz); Kenneth Wilkinson, John Pellowe (Joan Sutherland); James Brown (Kirsten Flagstad; Regina Resnik: Brangäne; Birgit Nilsson: Isolde); Gordon Parry, James Brown (Gwyneth Jones; Birgit Nilsson: Brünnhilde); Kenneth Wilkinson (Regina Resnik: Fricka)
Recording Locations: Teatro Comunale, Bologna, Italy, 10–17 July 1987 (Susan Dunn); UFA-Tonstudio, Berlin, Germany, 30 March – 4 April 1967 (Gundula Janowitz); Kingsway Hall, London, UK, 1978 (Joan Sutherland); Sofiensaal, Vienna, Austria, 13–15 May 1956 (Kirsten Flagstad), 1–9 March 1966 (Gwyneth Jones), September 1960 (Regina Resnik: Brangäne), 22–25 September 1959 (Birgit Nilsson: Isolde), 1962 (Birgit Nilsson: Brünnhilde); Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London, UK, 16–18 and 21 October 1961 (Regina Resnik: Fricka)