Beethoven: Fidelio

Ludwig van Beethoven (Composer), Wilhelm Furtwängler (Conductor), Wiener Staatsopernorchester (Orchestra), Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (Performer), Kirsten Flagstad (Performer), Anton Dermota (Performer), Julius Patzak (Performer), Hans Braun (Performer), Josef Greindl (Performer), Paul Schöffler (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Kirsten Flagstad, Anton Dermota, Julius Patzak, Hans Braun, et al.
• Orchestra: Wiener Staatsopernorchester
• Conductor: Wilhelm Furtwängler
• Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
• Audio CD (February 27, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Opera D'oro
• ASIN: B000056PGB
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #126,786 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Fidelio in the Romantic tradition, October 23, 2004

By 

L. E. Cantrell (Vancouver, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beethoven: Fidelio (Audio CD)

Source: Live 1950 performance at Salzburg. This famous performance has circulated for years in pirated form. Here it appears in respectable publication--or at least as respectable as Od'O gets.

Sound: OK for its time and place. For you delicate souls who must hear DDD clarity or suffer the vapors, walk away right now. This is not for you. For those of you interested in art, be warned that Flagstad's voice simply overwhelms the capacity of the recording system from time to time. Accept that and move on.

Documentation: Not up to Od'O abysmal standards. No libretto. Nothing on cast members, conductor, orchestra or circumstances of the recording. Track list omits timings and fails even to identify the singers. Disc 2, track 11, as shown above in the Amazon track listing, appears as "Entr'acte." So it is, and then some, for in accordance with the practice of the day, Furtwaengler gives a barn burning performance of the Leonore Overture No. 3.

This is Furtwaengler's Fidelio, which is to say that it is a great Fidelio. This is the ultimate Romantic take on the opera, utterly at variance with the dry and spare style of performance that is now, alas, fashionable. Listen here to one of the greatest of the great conductors in full command of every nuance of the score.

Three members of the cast are certainly as good as any who ever recorded Fidelio, and possibly better. Flagstad is her incomparable self. Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and Anton Dermota are simply unbeatable as Marzelline and Jaquino, the secondary soprano and tenor.

The other three main principals are more problematic. Julius Patzak is Florestan, the much-abused hero who does not appear until Act II. Patzak was a renowned lieder singer whose operatic career began with Tamino and Don Ottavio, soared to Rudolfo and Turiddu, triumphed in the operettas of Strauss and Lehar, and finished with Herod. His performance is intelligent, skillful and well thought-out. The only problem with Patzak in Fidelio is simply that he does not have enough voice. Florestan is not a man, he is Beethoven's symbol of suffering humanity. In the final scene of Act II, when Florestan sings the praises of Leonore before all the massed voices--"Retterin, Retterin des Gatten sein"--Patzak can't bring it off. He sounds more like Woody Allan than humanity liberated.

Paul Schoeffler, like all the rest of this cast, was a stalwart of the Vienna State Opera. I saw him do a terrific Hans Sachs in San Francisco during the sixties. A natural-born Don Alfonso for "Cosi fan tutte," he lacks the bite for that heart of darkness which is Don Pizarro. Josef Greindl, on the other hand, was opera's resident cave man. His huge, dark, mean-sounding voice is utterly at variance with the weak but vaguely benevolent Papa Rocco. When Schoeffler and Greindl sing together, as they often do, it sounds as though they have mixed up their parts.

The Vienna State Opera Orchestra and the chorus must have been magnificent in the pit and on the stage. The recording suggests this, but doesn't do them full service.

Five stars for Furtwaengler, Flagstad, Schwarzkopf and Dermota.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Legenday Performance, March 29, 2001

By 

William S. Levison (Valdosta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Beethoven: Fidelio (Audio CD)

This 1950 Salzburg performance has been around for decades, but this is the cleanest recording I've heard. The performance is stunning. Flagstad was entering the final phase of her career, but the voice is magnificent: warm and wonderfully powerful. The rest of the cast is absolutely first rate, with Schwarzkopf an unmatchable Marzellina. Furtwangler is at his legendary finest. Nothing but a plot summary accompanies the discs, not even the fact that one of the Lenore overtures is used to bridge the two scenes of Act II. Nevertheless, this would be a bargain at three times the price.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic "Fidelio' in good sound at a bargain price, March 22, 2009

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beethoven: Fidelio (Audio CD)

Opera d'Oro has become the best source for off-label versions of famous live performances. That's certainly the case with this Fidelio. Here are Furtwaangler's four recordings of the opera:

August 3, 1948 - Salzburg Festival. Erna Schluter, Julius Patzak, Lisa della Casa, Ferdinand Frantz.

August 5, 1950 - Salzburg Festival. Kirsten Flagstad, Julius Patzak, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Paul Schoeffler.

October 12, 1953 - Vienna State Opera. Martha Modl, Wolfgang Windgassen, Sena Jurinac, Otto Edelmann.

October 13-17, 1953 - Studio Recording, same cast as Oct. 12th performance.

Pride of place has always gone to the 1950 Salzburg performance on EMI, which features Flagstad's authoritative, if mature-sounding Leonore and a fervent, poetic Florestan from Patzak. How is Opera d'Oro's reissue compared to the offical one from EMI? It's in almost as good sound -- closely miked mono that puts the orchestra a bit too far away but captures the voices with satisfactory fidelity. Compared to the 1953 studio version, there's added dramatic tension from the live setting in Salzburg (where Furtwangler led the same production of Fidelio, with varying casts, in 1948, 1949, and 1950), even though the first twenty minutes feel painfully slow to me. Only the great singing cast saves the performance from periodically sinking under Furtwangler's extremely broad pacing, which would have left lesser performers gasping for breath.

For me, it's a toss-up between this recording and the other staged one from 1953, which is a shade faster but not cast quite as strongly. If you search on the used market, it's possible to find both at bargain price, making it unnecessary to choose. In terms of sound and Furtwangler's mesmerizing interpretive gifts, they are very similar.