Wagner: Der Flegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman), WWV 63

Leonie Rysanek (Artist), Karl Leibl (Artist), George London (Artist), Rosalind Elias (Artist), Richard Lewis (Artist), Richard Wagner (Composer), Antal Dorati (Conductor), Royal Opera H. Convent Garden Orch & Cho (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Royal Opera H. Convent Garden Orch & Cho
• Conductor: Antal Dorati
• Composer: Richard Wagner
• Audio CD (July 16, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Polygram Records / Decca
• ASIN: B0000041RL
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #34,852 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Overture - Orch Royal Opr House/Dorati

2. Act I: Introduktion: 'Hojohe!-Kein Zweifel! Sieben Meilen fort' - Chor Royal Opr House/Giorgio Tozzi

3. Act I: Lied: 'Mit Gewitter und Sturm aus fernem Meer' - Richard Lewis

4. Act I: Rezitativ und Arie: 'Die Frist ist um' - George London

5. Act I: Duett: 'He! Holla! Steuermann!' - Richard Lewis

6. Act I: 'Durch Sturm und bosen Wind verschlagen' - George London

7. Act I: 'Wie? Hort ich recht?' - Richard Lewis

8. Act I: Chor: 'Mit Gewitter und Sturm aus fernem Meer' - Chor Royal Opr House/Douglas Robinson

9. Act II: Lied: 'Summ' und brumm', du gutes Radchen' - Chor Royal Opr House/Douglas Robinson

10. Act II: 'Du boses Kind, wenn du nicht spinnst' - Roslind Elias

See all 11 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Act II: 'Ach! Wo weilt sie, die dir Gottes Engel einst konne zeigen?' - Chor Royal Opr House/Douglas Robinson

2. Act II: 'Senta! Willst du mich verderben?' - Karl Liebl

3. Act II: Duett: 'Bleib', Senta! Bleib' nur einen Augenblick!' - Karl Liebl

4. Act II: 'Auf hohem Felsen lag ich tramend' - Karl Liebl

5. Act II: 'Mein Kind, du siehst mich auf der Schwelle' - Giorgio Tozzi

6. Act II: Arie: 'Mog'st du, mein Kind, den fremden Mann willkommen heißen!' - Giorgio Tozzi

7. Act II: Duett: 'Wie aus der Ferme langst vergang'ner Zeiten' - George London

8. Act II: 'Wirst du des vaters Wahl nicht schelten?' - George London

9. Act II: Terzett: 'Verzeiht! Mein Volk halt draußen sich nicht mehr' - Giorgio Tozzi

10. Act III: Chor: 'Steuermann, lass' die Wacht!' - Chor Royal Opr House/Douglas Robinson

See all 16 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best then, best now., October 8, 2003

By 

Howard G Brown "brownswan" (Port St. Lucie, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wagner: Der Flegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman), WWV 63 (Audio CD)

I owned a copy of this in the early '60s when it was released in the US on 3 RCA lps. The only other stereo recording then available was on Angel (EMI), featuring Fischer-Dieskau in a recording from East Berlin conducted by Franz Konwitschny.

You paid your money, you took your choice: London's black-and-white Dutchman or FiDi's range of gray. It was Leone Rysanek that tipped the scales for me, along with the superior Decca engineering (licensed by RCA in a brief partnership between the labels).

Those lps are long gone, so it's a great pleasure to have the set back on CDs. Get one of these used copies -- or you can wait, and hope it emerges in the Decca Legends series. Either way, it will be a valuable addition to your library.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Astounding, overlooked recording of Wagner's 1st masterpiece, June 14, 2001

By 

darragh o'donoghue - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wagner: Der Flegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman), WWV 63 (Audio CD)

Opera's most shiversome ghost story, 'The flying Dutchman' was Wagner's fourth opera, and still remains within conventional bounds - not just in terms of constructing harmony, but in forms such as recitatif, ballads, straightforward arias etc. used throughout.

And yet already Wagner is chomping at the bit, in the way these bounds are strained to the limit. The most exciting moments are those glimpses of future Wagner, the continuous movement of the Dutchman's anguished opening soliloquy; the ecstatic love duet, complete with spacy 'Tannhauser' backing. The climax is one of the greatest in opera, the marriage from Hell, as a standoff between sailors and ghosts is engulfed in a thunderous storm, with the orchestra blaring motifs all over the chaos.

It is significant that the most conventionally beautiful, melodious music is ironically given to the commercial transaction of a love that is is supposed to have transcendant, redemptive power.

Perhaps Wagner's finest achievement in 'Dutchman' is his balancing the two levels of his story, the allegorical one of damnation and perverse redemption through love and death, provoking genuinely otherwordly and spiritual music; and the surface 'realistic' one of the backdrop, the surges of the sea, the echoing vastness of the fjords, the community of sailors and their women. With the exception of 'Die Meistersinger', Wagner wouldn't achieve such a balance again.

This recording is not at all well-known, and despite being a great bargain, the lack of a libretto will prove a handicap. To overlook it, however, would be a great mistake. Antal Dorati conducts as if the opera was of its time (another mid-19th century work) rather than fully-formed 'Wagnerian' (as is too often the case), and this concentrated constraint paradoxically allows the music to break free and overpower, just as the supernatural does the everyday in the opera.

The 'Dutchman' isn't so much of a marathon as later Wagner, so there is little flagging in the singing: Leonie Rysanek gives great sincerity to Senta, a role which could easily be very silly.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Singing and Conducting, April 13, 2006

By 

Virginia Opera Fan (Falls Church, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wagner: Der Flegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman), WWV 63 (Audio CD)

This is my favorite "Dutchman". The singers are all very fine in their respective roles. Rysanek is something of an acquired taste. I don't think her commercial recordings really capture her at her frequently awesome best, but she is still a top rank Senta. London, captured before his voice began its decline of only a few years hence is second only to Fischer-Dieskau on disc. For me, Tozzi is the standout in the cast. His richly overtoned bass is probably much better than Daland (willing to sell his daughter to the highest bidder) deserves. Erik is a role that leaves a hole in almost every performance, so Liebl is perfectly acceptable. Lewis' Steerman is second only to Wunderlich under Konwitschny.

I think Dorati's conducting steals the show. To begin with, he plays the opera as a single act as Wagner originally intended. The preludes of the three act version become interludes in the continuous arch of the performance. He also conducts with a propulsive quality that is appropriate to this early work. For example, listen to the Act I duet between Daland and the Dutchman. It's not top drawer Wagner and in lesser hands can sound pretty awkward. Dorati's insistence on forward motion makes the best case for the piece. As much as I admire Klemperer's conducting in general, his work in the slightly later vintage EMI set, which I also own, can make for some pretty leaden listening.

The sound is a little disappointing considering what RCA and Decca were achieving in sonic quality in their joint ventures, of which this is one, at the time. I've never heard the original Living Stereo LPs, but the CD re-mastering has a high hiss level. Minor faults aside, this is a "Dutchman" to treasure.