Customer Reviews

Richard Strauss: Daphne

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Daphne was dedicated to Karl Bohm by Richard Strauss!!! This is a "live" performance conducted by the dedicatee!! It is a magnificent and sumptuous realization of the genius of Richard Strauss in the opera's score. Bohm keeps the drama moving along and you don't lose interest in the opera at all throughout. The principal singers are in magnificent form. Gueden, who was one of the Vienna State Opera's favorite singers (a member of the prestigious Vienna Ensemble) sings radiantly and lustrously as Daphne. James King's ringing high notes are magnificent. And Wunderlich is perfect. I love this Daphne!! Don't stay at home without it!!

Don't believe people who tell you that Strauss had nothing more to offer in opera besides Der Rosenkavalier, Elektra, Salome, Die Frau Ohne Schatten, Ariadne Auf Naxos and Arabella!!

Daphne was dedicated to Bohm himself and what a performance this is!! The performance in 1964 was a sensational success, and here we have it on recording to enjoy it. The recording is in superb stereo with voices clearly recorded. It is complete nonsense to say that the whole of Vienna attended with a flu. There are a couple of coughs, quite normal in a live performance. That's all.

Hilda Guden is a fabulous Daphne, her radiant voice lyrical and expressive, yet with enough power to soar over the orchestra at climaxes. She sings really beautifully. James King tackles the inordinate demands of the part of Apollo with consummate ease. It is as if the part had no difficulties for him. Wunderlich is wonderful - what else can I say. Yes, this is another of Strauss' marvellous operas - a bucolic tragedy in one act (yes, another one act tragedy). Bohm keeps the music moving along so that there isn't any part that drags at all.

It is really weird that Daphne is not performed as frequently as it should. I suppose that people are so absorbed by operas like Der Rosenkavalier, Elektra, Salome that they forget that Strauss wrote many other incredible operas, all with beautiful voice parts and orchestral backdrop.

Much has been said about the tremendous quality of this performance... I won't reiterate it except to say that if there were a thousand recordings of this opera, this would easily still be the best. As it stands, there aren't a thousand, there aren't very many at all, and that's a shame. Strauss has the reputation of being a retroacitve composer; some say he wrote two great modern operas and then lost it, others say four or five, with a sudden burst of greatness at the end with Cappriccio and the four last songs.
It's becoming more apparent that Strauss had much more to offer us than just Rosenkavalier. While many people criticize the librettos after Hofmannsthal's death, one really should keep in mind what we are comparing here. Considering that the later librettos are being compared to one of the greatest of German poets and the master Oscar Wilde (whose Salome was altered very little and to great effect), one could perhaps have a more forgiving attitude. Certainly the Libretto to Daphne is not bad; no worse than most operas, although lacking a little in excitement and explosive scenes.
The music, however, is absolutely incredible. There are moments that are every bit as intense as Elektra or Salome, and other moments that are even more restrained than Capriccio. It is also a return to tragedy for Strauss, after the succession of comic or at the most tragic-comdedic (after all, Die Frau Ohne Schatten does have a happy ending). If one does not feel comfortable comparing it to the so called great Strauss operas, it has to be at least admitted as a great opera (more so for the music than the libretto). In a way it's similar to the great operas like Cosi fan Tutte, Parsifal, Falstaff and most of Puccini's work after Butterfly, in that it is great, and unfairly overshadowed by works that are more popular and sometimes not as brilliant.
It's also important to remember that Strauss never retreated from dissonance and modernism, anymore than Puccini did either. Because the subject of Rosenkavalier is Mozart era Austria, and because the dissonance is applied in a subtler way, people make the mistake of thinking it is retroactive. If you don't believe this, listen again to the theme associated with the Silver Rose... it's quite dreamy, but it is also removed from the key of the music supporting it. And so on for all of his operas, including Daphne. I should also recommend all the Bohm/Strauss recordings in this series; this man could do Strauss' music, and if you have any doubts about the quality of his music, these are the recordings to get.

This is the dream cast for this opera! There is no reason why an opera this beautiful should be revived as little as it is. Even Strauss's own tyrannical wife approved of the closing scene: at the premiere, she leaned over out of her seat and gave a kiss to Bohm, the conductor (she said he only would get one because he was too sweaty).
So what are the problems? The first is the recording technology of the time. The second is the fact that this is a live recording. Why all of Vienna had to attend the performance with the flu is beyond me. Still, this recording is worthwhile for the performers and the performance!

James King and Fritz Wunderlich on one disc? And Gueden? And the great straussian Boehm conducting the Wiener Symph? And the greatest of all Strauss's closing scenes between Salome and Cappriccio? ALmost too good to be true. Glorious music gloriously sung. YEs bits of the opera stretch one's patience - but the magical moments are all worth the wait. If you admire Strauss or the radiant Gueden, don't miss this set. Superb sound quality for a live recording, even the heard of sheep is clear without obilterating the orchestral textures - more than one can say from some theatrical performances, I'm sure... I do not care much for the alternative Lucia Popp version, since her voice does not have the cobination of brilliant power and pure clean legato lines that this role requires, but there is a lovely "closing scene" by Renee Fleming on her "Scenes" disc with Solti.

Daphne is most certainly a good opera by an outstanding composer of operas. The only question is whether one wishes to buy the CD or just hear it in performance. As this latter is very unlikely, and certainly never with such a cast, you will have to "pays you're money and takes you're chances." If you are interested in the classical art of Greece perhaps that should push you into a purchase. As a fan - a huge fan - of Hilde G. I bought the opera for her. Frankly I found her tested pretty severely in her long epic solo opening. If tenors rightly dread walking out on stage and with little warm-up tackling Verdi's Celeste Aida, I can only imagine how sopranos envision this test!
If you are not sold on this opera as a purchase and don't yet own the composer's Four Last Songs you might consider those before Daphne.

Several reviewers have already done a very good and thorough job in comparing the two available recordings of this opera, so I'll try not to go too much over already well-trodden ground.

As a Fleming fan, it pains me to note that the newer, 2005 Bychkov recording is far too obviously merely a vehicle for her to do her shtick. As a theatrical experience her version is totally studio bound and very undramatic, especially if you listen side-by-side with the thrilling Böhm live recording from 1964. Fleming herself simply has the wrong vocal lay-out for the chaste, virginal Daphne; her sound is luscious and sensual, whereas Hilde Gueden has exactly the silvery, childlike shimmer in her voice that the part requires. Furthermore, Fleming's co-singers are very competent and dutiful, but are not vocal characters who live their parts in the way Wunderlich, Vera Little and James King do on stage. As a clincher, Bychkov's direction is desperately plodding and mundane; although his tempi are often virtually identical to those of Böhm, the latter sounds inspired and driven in his direction - the lyrical sections sing and the grander passages lift off.

Trying to ensure a degree of fairness and objectivity, I also compared the closing pages of the score from Bychkov's set with the Transfiguration Scene from Fleming's 1995 recital with Solti conducting the LSO. Even though Solti is a minute and half slower, superior phrasing and more nuanced playing from the LSO maintain the pulse and momentum of that gorgeous music, while Bychkov simply falters and stalls. Similarly, if you compare Ben Heppner's stirring account of Apollo's last aria in his 1994 recital conducted by Andrew Davis, or James King's impassioned delivery for Böhm with Johan Botha's serviceable but unimaginative singing for Bychkov, you will straight away hear a difference.

Böhm's drive and passion certainly engender a few negligible mistakes and imperfections from both the singers and the orchestra, but the immediacy and atmosphere of a live performance are ample compensations. The sound is really very good for its era and provenance, and you have the opportunity to hear the cream of Strauss festival performers in the 1960's, whereas for Bychkov those assembled around Fleming were also the best available but are simply not as good. Both Schade and Botha have rather white, bleaty voices - and Botha's vibrato can blare - compared with the peerless Wunderlich and King (on what was evidently a very good day for him, vocally).

Unless you simply must have modern digital sound, as an operatic experience Bychkov comes a very distant second to this Böhm peformance.

This is a good performance of Daphne, and in fine sound quality, but not really the best one available. Note that the orchestra is the Wiener Symphoniker, not the Philharmoniker, and they play no better than accurate, sometimes less. Another problem is the title role of Hilde Güden, who pays much attention to elegant singing and no attention to the text. If you are unfamiliar with the German language you may not bother, but I am annoyed by this soup of vowels in which I cannot discern one articulated word. On the other hand the Leukippos of Fritz Wunderlich and the Peneios of Paul Schöffler are very beautiful. And off course the conducting is marvellous, precise and atmospheric, second only to Erich Kleiber. Alternative recordings of Daphne are the one by Bernard Haitink (lovely Daphne by Lucia Popp, some lack of theatre), the one by Erich Kleiber (very well conducted and sung but in bad sound) and the 1944 one by Karl Böhm (the best sung of them all but in equally bad sound).

This recording is a dream, pairing Böhm and the Vienna Phil with a number of the greatest Straussian voices of the 20th century. To hear the likes of Paul Schöffler, James King, and Fritz Wunderlich together in one performance today would be impossible. Music-making like this is nearly nonexistent today.

It is unfortunate that Daphne is rarely heard. It contains some of the most inspired music of Strauss's later operas, and the complaint that it drags because of a lack of action is spurious. Strauss often requires patience of the listener, and almost always that patience is rewarded.

I did not pick this CD deliberately - it came accidently when browsing for Wunderlich's recordings.
Thankful indeed that I got it. This live recording will be an invaluable item in any collection of classical music.
The sound in stereo is good enough - even if recorded in 1964.
The dedicatee Karl Boehm conducted well and headed a dream cast : Gueden in title role, flanked by Fritz Wunderlich and James King.
The final trio between the three protagonists are really electrifying.
I haven't heard this opera before, but would say that it is every bit as good as Rosenkavalier or the other Strauss's works, if not as lengthy as others.
Apart from Hilde Gueden's singing, an interesting 'singing battle' was waged between Wunderlich and King in this performance. It is fun picking out who is who in the ensembles: King's heldentenor voice having more baritonal depth and Wunderlich having a brighter metallic ring. Their respective portrayals as god and man constrasted successfully.
I've seen that in the modern album, some critics commented on Fleming's voice as being too 'dark'. Well, I haven't heard that recording yet, but from my recent impression of Fleming in recital, I don't think this role would cause her any great problem - she sounds as gorgeous as ever even in 2007, in great lyrical and silvery tone from top to bottom.
Hilde Gueden had a very girlish (soubrette like) soprano. This suited Daphne's role. But a soprano with a silvery lyricism like Fleming should equally excel.
Surely I will get hold of the modern version some other day.