Customer Reviews

Richard Strauss - Arabella / Kiri Te Kanawa, ROH, Tate

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Arabella is one of Te Kanawa's best roles and this recording finds her near her peak, the voice effortlessly produced over a wide range, the tone full and creamy. Some find her interpretation of Arabella somewhat understated, but I think she perfectly captures Arabella's outwardly sophisticated, reserved nature, with the passion held at bay. The closing scene is quite wonderful - a real tear jerker! Fontana is not as glamourous vocally, but seems to inhabit Zdenka and make her live. She blends well with Te Kanawa in the duets. Grunheber is quite excellent in all respects - a Mandryka to fall in love with. Seiffert is the only tenor I know that really makes something of Matteo. A fine performance both vocally and dramatically. Tate leads a somewhat broad performance, which works well in this opera, emphasizing the romantic aspects nicely. The recorded sound is virtually perfect. A must have for Straussians.

Dame Kiri te Kanawa is generally acknowledged as one of the greatest Strauss sopranos of our day, indeed of all time. I just can't understand why Decca has deleted both her Arabella and her Capriccio sets. These are signature roles for Dame Kiri - she is indeed renowned for them - and the recordings capture her at or near her best, circa late 80s-early 90s. She is supported by other great performers in both sets and the sound quality is excellent. The market isn't crowded with fine recordings of these beautiful operas, so these deletions are quite hard to understand or to forgive, particularly because these are Dame Kiri's only recordings of these operas. I can only imagine that the people who run classical record companies these days just don't know or care much about music, only about profits. It's as ludicrous as if they were to delete Callas' Tosca or Sutherland's Lucia di Lammermoor (which wouldn't surprise me any more). I can't tell you how many times I have searched for essential recordings that surely MUST be in the catalogue only to find, much to my surprise and dismay, that they are out of print - sometimes for several years - with not much hope of reissue. For example, Decca has already deleted the legendary, indispensable Rosenkavalier conducted by Erich Kleiber, a set from their "Legends" series (!) that only appeared a couple of years ago. Yet every single atrocious and misguided effort by mediocrities such as Andrea Bocelli is readily available forever. We live in sad times. Bring back these great recordings, please!

This is one of those increasingly rare recordings that should be in just about every music lover's collection that includes opera. That Decca has seen fit to delete it from the catalog simply astounds. We aren't talking about the dribs and drabs of everyday life here. This is te Kanawa singing Richard Strauss, for God sake.

Get a copy of it, listen to it, fall in love with it, and then sock it away somewhere safe. If Decca doesn't get it back out pretty quickly, you're going to find yourself in possession of something worth a bloody fortune!