Customer Reviews

Strauss - Die Frau ohne Schatten / Voigt, Heppner, Schwarz, Grundheber, Hass, Sinopoli

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I haven't always been a Sinopoli fan, but I must say, he's refreshing and altogether arresting in Strauss. It all just sounds right. He finds the balances, motifs, and intstrumental details with amazing clarity. Heppner is an ideal Emperor: clean musical lines, power, interpretation, and the high notes to pull off the role are all at his disposal. Voigt has the right voice and feeling for Strauss and his Empress, but doesn't interpret as dramatically as Varady for Solti or Rysanek for Bohm. As the Dyer's Wife, Hass fills the role's vocal requirements, a true Wagnerian-dramatic-soprano, which is no small feat in itself. Grundheber does the same as her husband, but neither are ideal as Hass sometimes borders on unsteadiness which threatens to derail her voice and Grundheber rather gruff demeanor and fuzzy tone can't bring to life the character convincingly. Chorus, orchestra, and the supporting roles play and sing superbly and the sound is surprisingly clean and full-ranged. Annoyingly, there are stage cuts but unexplainably so since all of the leading singers could have sustained their parts uncut. It rivals Solti in Strauss style but not in completeness or scale. I prefer Sinopoli anyway.

No other recording - not even Solti's - lifts off the way Sinopoli's does in that stunning quartet which concludes this opera ; he controls the huge orchestral forces and intricate vocal lines to engineer the most heart-wrenching climax before the ethereal voices of the unborn children send us off to bed, amazed and delighted. So it's a thousand pities that Sinopoli permitted so many damaging cuts - not least the beautiful 'cello solo at the beginning of the scene early in Act Two just before the Emperor sees the Empress and Nurse returning from the World of Men; surely they could have been recorded and spliced in afterwards? My respect for Sabine Hass, who succumbed to cancer not long ago, does not prevent me from observing that while she conveys great intensity in her performance it is also too often a strident pain in the ears. Grundheber is gruff compared with the mellifluous Van Dam in the Solti, though that suits the character; Voigt and Heppner, however, are in unbeatable voice: powerful, lyrical and true; as good as, if not better than, their counterparts in the Solti, Varady and Domingo. Voigt is especially moving in the statue scene -again, horribly pruned but still very effective. I have four recordings of this masterpiece: Karajan 1964 Salzburg set, the Solti, the Bohm on "Opera d'Oro" (in indifferent sound but it enshrines some wonderful performances) and this one - and I wouldn't want to be without any of them, especially the Sinopoli if only for that last scene.

Voigt and Heppner shine here as the Emperor and his wife. In fact the whole cast is magnificent, with the exception of Sabine Hass, who is shrill, and has intonation problems. Voigt is georgeous in this opera, her voice is absolutely perfect for the role. Heppner as well makes an incredible Emperor.

This recording reminds me of those architectural structures where no expense was spared in every aspect of the design and production of the structure. That is, right up to the point where they ran out of money and tried to do sad patch job to finish or fix it without acheiving satisfying results. Both stunning and sad.

This recording appears to have just such contradictions. Conducting that is both exceptional and at times oddly slowed down as if to fill a time slot rather than playing all of the music. Of all of Strauss' opera's this is my favorite and I've attended every performance that I could possibly get to. It seems that the most popular recording is the Solti. While several others come higher on other lists, I've noticed that the Solti is most frequently rated 'best'. This is not without cause. I have three favorite recordings of this. Sawallisch conducting the Symphonieorchester Bayerischen Rundfunks with Cheryl Studer, René Kollo et al. is my favorite for several reasons. For one, it's the only truly complete recording I know of and also it's orchestrally accurate in using an actual glass harmonica, which Sinopoli does, in fact, use as well for the appearance of the shadow rather than a vibraphone or some other substitution. The first recording I'd ever hear was the Christal Goltz recording with Bohm at the helm. Flawed but dear to me for simply being the first I heard (and therefor 3rd place.) Solti comes in second with probably the best overall vocal performances but the orchestra which is rich and big and precise, still lacks the detail of Symphonieorchester Bayerischen Rundfunks under Sawallisch, particularly in the numerous lightly orchestrated sections though-out the work. I should point out that this opera (not this recording) is one of my favorites in all of the opera canon so my familiarity with it is extensive.

Sinopoli often audibly hums along. Not painful or truly destructive, it just occasionally sounds distracting, and originally, I thought there was something wrong with the recording. The places where Sinopoli slows the pace almost painfully is really annoying. The reveal of the Kaiser turned to stone should build tension rather than make you feel like saying "Good Lord, just get on with it!" The cuts throughout are at times the ones one expects in live performances, but really shouldn't have been done with a recording like this. A personal favorite moment of mine is the 2nd act "O Tag des Glucks" ensemble and that is often cut as, sadly, it is here. The cuts towards the end are really unnecessary. Perhaps there was a gun to Sinopoli's head. Perhaps someone at Teldec said "If he keeps up this pace we're going to have to make this a 4 disc set." Voigt performed this differently when I saw her, so I don't know if she changed her performance dramatically for Sinopoli or grew into it. Musically, she's great as is most of the ensemble, but the vocal acting leaves something to be desired. Heppner is just as good as I hoped he'd be.

This is a recording that I will listen to occasionally, because each time I listen to it, I get my hopes up because of a beautiful moment only to have them dashed a moment later.

One last note about the cuts. There I times when the cuts are so poorly chosen, it almost sounds as if the cut was done in the editing room and not by the orchestra. They are that musically jarring at times.

At last a recording of this opera that is not shrill. The balance and modulation of this recording makes it the magical experience it is intended to be.

At last a recording of this opera that is not shrill. The balance and modulation of this recording makes it the magical experience it is intended to be.

This is an excellent performance. But my advice is to get the Vienna 1964 under Karajan from DG. That version is in mono not stereo. Also, Karajan makes cuts and reorganizes some of the scens so that they don't follow Strauss direction. So why do I recommend that version?

Put simply because the performance is simply exceptionally outstanding. Christa Ludwig gives a miraculous performance as the Dyer's Wife - the supreme interpreter of the role, above all competition. Your heart stops whenever she starts singing. Leonie Rysanek, it need not be said, is incomparable as the Empress - no one can touch Rysanek in the role of the Empress except Rysanek herself!! Grace Hoffman sings with searing dramatic sense in the difficult role of the Nurse. Her voice is strong and incisive. Her malevolence comes through clearly and her voice has sufficient heft to cut through the Straussian orchestration. Walter Berry is in sensational voice as Barak and his partnership with then-wife Christa Ludwig is unbeatable. Their duet at the beginning of Act 3 is a collectors' item to be treasured. Jess Thomas is in excellent voice as the Emperor. Plus we have the great Fritz Wunderlich in a small role and the lovely soprano, Lucia Popp in a number of small roles - the falcon, the voice from heaven, the voices of unborn children. The Vienna Philharmonic play like gods. They knew that this was Karajan's last opera with them and they gave nothing but their best - their quality of musicianship puts all and sundry to shame. Finally, the DG transfers are superb. No doubt it is in mono but the clarity of detail is amazing. One could only wish that someone had been smart enough to record it in stereo back then. Unfortunately, no one did. It is always worthwhile getting a DG 'live' performance than some of those on smaller labels simply because DG has access to the original tapes and always make superb transfers. Karajan's 1962 Il Trovatore for example, had been available for a long time on smaller labels but the smaller labels had bad sonic quality. So when the DG version came out I just snapped it up because the quality was better although I had to pay more.

Therefore, if you want the 1964 Karajan Vienna, better snap up now. It's already not available Amazon.com but you can still find it elsewhere. By all means, if you want a stereo version, this and the Solti are both excellent recordings. But that night in 1964 at the Vienna State Opera was a miraculously special one that Straussians will not want to miss. In particular, if you like Die Frau Ohne Schatten, you must not miss that performance, esp when DG has done such superb transfers.

This set is very disappointing. Not only is it uncompetitive when faced with the classic Solti set on Decca, the principal singers here are all caught well below their best. Sinopoli's conducting is very idiosyncratic and I don't think it is effectively musically or dramatically. All the other available versions of this opera is better than this one, which should be avoided.

Giuseppe Sinopoli was a truely brilliant man, and he died much to soon. Ariadne auf Naxos will stand as a towing memorial to him. Never have I heard such an incredible rendering of this devine music, all of the beauty is revealed in prefect pacing and attention to detail.Each singer has given their all, brilliant preformances all around.
If you love this opera, this is a "must have". If you never quite cared for it, run out and buy it, and be prepared to fall in love.
We has lost one of the finest conductors of all time, Rest in Peace,we will miss you.
Margot Roby-McGowan

I am sure that most who read this comment, the one that leads into this review, and then look at the star rating will wonder if I had made a mistake. Well, I didn't. I do rate it a five star performance, but the opera itself is very dry to me. When the subtitle states it is a "Fairy tale opera by two intellectuals" that is a perfect statement. There is nothing fairly tale about this work (at least not in the Humperdinck way of things), nor is there anything remotely involving. Like much of Strauss, the music meanders around in a wash of orchestral sound never really finding a theme, or a tune, or much of anything, yet always filled with something that is captivating, and nearly touching the soul. I rate the opera, not the recording, along side Wagner's two operas that took me years to enjoy; Parsifal and Tristan. Nothing happens for ever in this opera. Yes, there is glorious music in it, that I will admit, much glorious music. To me the drama is completely lost.

I came to this opera because of comments made by musicians who are friends who are "in the know." They all raved about the performances of Christa Ludwig as the drier's wife, and how the ending of the opera (with all the future children to be born to the emperor and empress singing) was a revelation. Of course, I was completely intrigued. I saw photos of that talked about ending with Ludwig in them. Surely this opera must be as beautiful and imaginative as the photos presented. Well, I put the recording on and drifted off entirely. Obviously, the opera didn't keep me awake long enough to know if it really was all that good. Now I have to admit, I loved Elektra and Salome and could find all the melodic beauty in those scores; there are moments in Rosenkavalier, beautiful as the score is, where I am so bored it isn't even funny (act three is a waste), and in most of Strauss' operas I have found he learned well from Wagner: whatever you write if it can be said in three words make sure you say it in three hundred words; if the scene can be completely acted out and make a super impact in 10 minutes, make sure you take three hours to do the same. For the most part, this doesn't bother me too much, for in many of his operas there is much beautiful music to relish in while nothing especially important is happening (excepting in Capriccio, that opera has nothing happen all night long, and only some of the music is captivating, the rest is deadly dull).

Sadly, that is exactly how I view this opera: it is a bunch of nothing happening for hours on end. At least there is a wealth of beautiful music to listen to, but as far as the story is concerned, there is nothing to engage you. Now I guess in performance it is another matter, but I have never seen this opera in performance. I have only listened to it on recording. I heard the Karajan recording, and it is wonderful as far as the lush sound is concerned, but I found myself outside of everything just like I found that in this recording.

To some readers, this is going to sound like a review that should have rated only one star, but you see, the recording is not the problem, the singers are not the problem, the conducting is not the problem; these things are all perfection. It is the opera itself. I cannot fault the performers, the conductor, or the engineers if the work itself is dull. They do a masterful job and what I am hearing is simply breathtaking. To me, it is unfair to fault the work of the performers when the work itself is the fault. It is a wonderful recording, and complete. I can even listen to it one act at a time, if I give myself time to rest between each (one act a day is enough), and during that time period I can really enjoy this opera all because of the wonderful singing, conducting, and orchestral playing.

I would recommend that you become familiar with the opera BEFORE you buy it. Get to know it and enjoy it (I didn't do that, and I am sure that is one reason it has taken me so long to enjoy it). Then buy it and you will enjoy it. If you are not certain about it, then borrow it first and listen to parts of it. It is expensive, as all opera recordings are, so do approach this recording with full awareness of what you are getting, and don't let the glowing reports of friends who saw the opera in generations past influence you into getting something you may or may not like.