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In Reply to: RE: Warner Released Klemp's Magic Flute and Giulini's Giovani in High Res: Both Easy Recommendations, Right? posted by jdaniel@jps.net on June 20, 2017 at 06:45:43
I know that these are sacred cows, but I don't care for either recording very much. The Magic Flute has some excellent singing (particularly Popp's KdN), but the rest of the cast is only fair, Gedda is a terrible Mozartean, and Frick wasn't having one of his better days (and wasn't a born Sarastro anyway). And the complete absence of dialogue is a dealbreaker for me. Klemperer's is a very different, more serious take on the opera; I don't mind that - I just wish that it had been done better.
As for the Giulini Don Giovanni, Waechter is an awful, hectoring Don, and I can't stand Schwarzkopf's meowing. And Alva's Ottavio is a wimp.
Follow Ups:
Giulini's performance. It remains the best I've heard.
Jeremy
...try the live one from 1956 from Salzburg, conducted by Mitropoulos.
It isn't high-rez, but the singers are leagues better than Giulini's.
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I assume that you're talking about Zauberflote, not Don Giovanni.
The Beecham Magic Flute is another "sacred cow" that, IMO, doesn't deserve the sort of knee-jerk emcomiums (encomia?) that it often receives. For my money, the only singer who is above routine is Gerhard Husch as Papageno (and he is superb). I dislike Berger's little girlish KdN, Lemnitz's colorless Pamina, and it's hard to tolerate Strienz once one has heard the likes of Crass and Moll as Sarastro. Worst is Roswaenge, utterly miscast and charmless as Tamino.
This recording was originally supposed to include Tauber and Kipnis instead of Roswaenge and Strienz, but Berlin was not a friendly place for Jews in 1937, so they cast a couple of Nazi sympathizers in their place.
n
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Thanks, Kas; I'll try to get a listen. Oddly, the only Mitropoulos with which I am very familiar is his conducting of Les Nuits d'Eté with Steber, but that performance is indeed stellar (both he and she).
Jeremy
Be sure to buy the Sony issue - this has been issued on some other labels, but Sony apparently got hold of the master tapes, and the sound, for a live 1956 performance, is excellent.
IMHO the performance really begins to deliver once Scarpia gets going towards the end of Act 1. It seems to me that De Sabata also (finally) wakes up at that point as well.
Is it just me, or is the love music of Act 1 very phoned-in and expedient? Sabata makes Solti sound relatively like Sinopoli during those pages. A little more indulgence would have been nice. : ) I'm wondering if I should try the Karajan/Price next....
But back to the topic at hand. I'm ashamed to admit I only know the highlights of both operas. In fact, it was only last year that I sat and actively listened to the Magic Flute: I stumbled across a really nice lp box set of Beecham's Berlin performance from HMV Treasury, from the beginning of time. I really liked it! The Queen of the Night was something else! As was the rest of the Opera: Mozart's "simplicity" suddenly came across as unusually eccentric and charming, in a good way, such as the stuttering, Pa-pa-pageno duet.
The Beecham's available at Pristine. Hmmmm.
Maybe try the Tosca with Caballe on Philips?
Although. . . at the same time, I must say that Dame Elizabeth didn't actually sound as bad as I'd expected! ;-)
Edits: 06/20/17
Good to know that others don't care for Schwarzkopf's singing either. I find most of it painful. Particularly her Four Last Songs (which is beautifully conducted by George Szell); yes, I know that this is sacrilege but listen to Jessye Norman, Barbara Hendricks or even Lisa Della Casa and then tell me how "beautiful" her singing was.. I can't help but wonder what kind of career she would have had if she hadn't been married to Walter Legge.
Harry
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