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5.0 out of 5 stars
Good, authentic-sounding, 1972 "Fledermaus" from Vienna, September 4, 2007
This review is from: Strauss: Die Fledermaus (Audio CD)
SOURCE: Studio recording made in Vienna in November-December 1971 and issued on LP in 1972.
SOUND: Good 1970s analogue stereo. This CD edition is based on a generally successfully digital re-mastering in 1997.
CAST: Gabriel von Eisenstein, a prosperous Viennese gentlemen with a roving eye - Nicolai Gedda (tenor); Rosalinde, his wife - Anneliese Rothenberger (soprano); Alfred, Rosalinde's would be lover - Adolf Dallapozza (tenor); Adele, Rosalinde's maid - Renate Holm (soprano); Dr. Falke, Eisenstein's good friend but also the victim of one of his practical jokes - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone); Frank, Governor of the City Prison - Walter Berry (baritone); Prinz Orlofsky, a jaded and bored visiting aristocrat - Brigette Fassbaender (mezzo-soprano); Dr. Blind, Eisenstein's lawyer - Jürgen Förster (tenor); Ida, Adele's sister - Senta Wengraf (speaker); Frosch, a jailer - Franz Boeheim (speaker), Iwan, Orlofsky's servant and henchman - Gerd W. Dieberitz (speaker).
CONDUCTOR: Willi Boskovsky with the Wiener Symphoniker and the Chor der Wiener Staatsoper in der Volksoper.
TEXT: The words of "Die Fledermaus" are the Rodney Dangerfield of opera, they just don't get no respect. In this production, the words spoken are so far from the text presented to Johann Strauss II by Haffner and Genée that they are credited to an entirely new author, Gisela Schunk. This version is blessedly free of any gala nonsense in Act II. On the other hand, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau has been granted an additional aria, "Die ganze Nacht durchgeschärmt" (Having made merry all night), imported from Strauss' operetta "Waldmeister."
COMMENTARY: This is an oddly elusive recording of "Die Fledermaus." Even the Good Grey Gramophone Magazine seems to have missed it entirely. In 1955, EMI had Karajan lead a performance of "Fledermaus" in a London studio with a dream cast that would have been a world beater even today, except for the calamitous mistake of producer Walter Legge in dismissing the new stereo technology as a fad. EMI and Legge tried again in London only five years later--this time in stereo--with a cast nearly as impressive but under the baton of Otto Ackerman, who wasn't much of a box office name outside Austria. In 1971, EMI took a third shot, but this time with an authentic Viennese band and chorus in Vienna itself.
The roots of Johann Strauss II's "Die Fledermaus" stretch back to an 1851 farce in German by Robert Benedix, "Die Gefängnis" ("The Prison"). In 1872, that admirable pair of hacks, Meilhac and Halévy, cobblers of libretti for both Offenbach and Bizet, converted the old German play into a French vaudeville as "Le réveillon" ("The Revel" or perhaps "The Christmas Eve Party"). In 1873-4, the French text was re-translated back into German for Strauss to set to music, but with all references to Christmas carefully expunged as a sop to respectable Viennese sensibilities. Oddly enough, the one-time Christmas Eve tale has taken firm root in Austria and elsewhere as a New Year's Eve entertainment.
If there exists a poor recording of "Die Fledermaus," I have never encountered it. Each major recording has its unique merits and its champions. Choosing the best among them is simply an exercise in expressing personal taste. "Chacun," as we are wisely advised, "à son goût." I shall limit myself to pointing out some of the salient characteristics of this recording.
Nicolai Gedda appears once again in the role of Eisenstein, as he had sixteen years earlier with Karajan. His performance is much the same as before. I prefer Eisenstein as a tenor rather than a high baritone, for a tenor provides a better balance of voices in Act II. Gedda is very good, but intrinsically too lyric to be an ideal Eisenstein, a character part calling out for the talents of a character tenor such as Julius Patzak.
Anneliese Rothenberger and Renate Holm are fine as Rosalinde and Adele, but good as they are, they can't match the brilliance of Schwarzkopf and Streich on the Karajan recording. Brigitte Fassbaender is a mezzo in the role of Orlofsky, just as Strauss intended. She is excellent. I prefer Christa Ludwig on the 1960 recording, but that is purely a matter of personal taste.
The other male soloists are all fine. Fischer-Dieskau was at home in German opera. He is almost good enough here to make me forget his cataclysmically awful forays into Italian opera ... almost.
Willi Boskovsky was regarded by the Viennese, themselves, as a Strauss expert. I can remember Austrian-born friends whose judgement I respected telling me that Boskovsky drew the true Viennese sound out of the Wiener Symphoniker on this recording. Who am I to dispute that?
This is a good, solid, authentic "Fledermaus."
Five stars.
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