Customer Reviews

Wagner - Der fliegende Holländer / Morris, Voigt, Heppner, Rootering, Groves, Svendén, MET, Levine

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

 

 

This is perhaps the starriest-cast 'Hollander' that one could assemble today, and though the extra degree of intensity may not be as prevalent in this recording when compared to its bretheren, the disc does not at all disappoint. I must admit that I am better equipped to speak on Senta than anything else, as it is my absolutely favorite role in all of opera. Senta operates an unusual place in Wagners ouvre. She is perhaps the most psychologically intense of Wagners heroines, a fact revealed in a look at the roles writing and its murderous tessitura which reveals that this isn't any 'common young spinning maiden'...and please let me say that Deborah Voigts voice does Senta and her plight justice. There is no questioning the contention that Ms. Voigt is one of the best operatic voices singing today. Her fame is well earned. Not in recent memory has such a ravishing voice, with such ample power, been heard. There is very little the woman can NOT sing, and why the Met has been so recalcitrant to grant her her oft-requested 'Macbeth' is beyond me- she IS incredible. Her Senta, it should thus come as no suprise to find, is gorgeous, but on this studio recording (live is another matter altogether) the intensity, indeed, the MANIA, that lurk within this character (so profoundly felt and expressed by her illustrious predecesors Anja Silja and Leonie Rysanek) is barely perceptable behind such waves and waves of gorgeous sound. Sentas madness, her impassioned belief in this her dream, the fulfillment of her destiny, and the shedding of her useless existence, is the heart and soul of the character. One must feel with Senta absolute exhaltation, frenzy even, at the end of this work and the sheer beauty of Voigts performance actually rather mutes this. This is not to say that I feel one must waver away from this performance. Hear it if only to hear one of the most incredible sopranos today partnered with more of her calibre... but by no means accept this recording as the operas recorded zenith... especially in regards to the passion, psychological depth and vitality that rage and brood within this work.

This isn't really a very good recording. Levine's treatment of the music is episodic and, at times, rather lifeless, and he fails to portray both the turmoil on the physical and psychological level.

Morris's voice is drier than usual and his Dutchman cannot be said to be one of his best achievements. Voigt sings beautifully but sounds underpowered as Senta. Above all, she completely misses the passion of the character. Heppner's Eric, by contrast, is one of the best on record.

As there are better recorded versions around, this set is by no means an essential buy.

This recording seems to have been made at the nadir of Levine's fixation on glacial tempos. The result is not more profound or more sublime--it's just dull. The sound is lovely but entirely bereft of any trace of drama. So much so that I'd almost recommend Barenboim's recording--with Eaglen's horrific Senta--just as an antidote. But luckily there are plenty of recordings to go around, so no such choice is necessary. In any event, though, skip this one. The overture, spinning song, ballade, double chorus--they're all pretty, but deadly dull. The choral singing is also pretty unfocused.

Morris! Voigt! Rootering! Heppner! Is any further comment needed. There isn't another recording available where the singing is so clear and beautiful. Voigt's voice is so georgeous it gives me goose bumbs. All German tenors should sing like Ben Heppner, He uses an Italianate technique to take this music to a higher level. The same can be said about everyone on this disc. If you want to hear Wagner sung beautifully you must buy this opera recording. The Voigt/Heppner/Morris combo is unsurpassable! Ahh!

This recording, featuring noted Wagnerians James Morris and Deborah Voight, is a great recording of Dutchman. I can't figure out why there are so many negative reviews here.

Morris' Dutchman is nothing short of stunning and Voigt makes an amazing Senta (her rendition of Senta's Ballad is just perfect). Dismiss the naysayers and add this to your collection.

This Dutchman set is only flawed through Levine's tempi, which are a tad slow. Although the overture is grand and the best I have ever heard, his rendition of the spinning chorus and ballad are too slow. After seeing Voigt in Paris in June, she has to be the best Senta I have ever heard and this recording does not do her voice true justice. Heppner is amazing in his delivery and not strained like many tenors. Morris is fantastic! Groves is also great. The men of the chorus fare better than the ladies who sound like old women. If only Levine had been a tad faster in some places...

This recording is a major disappointment. The singers are so wonderfully cast that I would have loved to see what they could have done with a reading of the score that wasn't so sluggish. And I know, I know. That's what EVERYONE has been saying about Levine in this recording. But I still gave it a listen hoping that maybe these reviewers were exaggerating, or nitpicking. Unfortunately they were absolutely correct. Under Levine any momentum the orchestra and the singers build just...DIES. I found my mind wandering waiting for passages to start, waiting for a singer to spit out their lines already. It's just a complete drag.

I don't want to be completely unfair. The sound is clear, the orchestra has power, the leads can definitely sing. In the end however, this doesn't even crack the top 5 Dutchman stereo recordings: the Dohnányi, Klemperer, Doráti, Solti and Sinopoli sets are all superior. At least check out a few of those recordings before settling on this one.

I really wanted to like this recording when I bought it because I was, at the time anyway, fond of the cast of singers. I had high expectations, of course, for James Morris, Deborah Voigt and Ben Heppner. The supporting cast is quite excellent, Birgitta Svendén, her gorgeous mezzo/contralto too rarely caught on recording or film, was a great attraction. And Paul Groves and Jan-Hendrik Rootering are both fine singers. So why did I hate this recording from the first time I heard it? In a name, James Levine. I don't know what makes this man kill off the energy the way he does in Wagner. I've heard him do marvelous Wagner, always at Bayreuth, but when he's in New York it's as if he goes into some sort of trance. He conducts this Holländer as if he were conducting Simon Boccanegra. Levine has always excelled at Verdi and I have several of his recordings of that composer's works, but Wagner, it's more miss than hit.

This recording starts off very well. The Sony sound is splendid, capturing the Metropolitan Opera much more richly than DGG ever did, and creating a believably "live" sound. The overture is full of heavy swells and deadly undertows. Levine opts for his favorite ponderous approach and it works, in this part of the opera anyway. Then things start to unravel. James Morris is in Wotan-mode voice here and it is more the pity that he was not partnered by a peppier conductor. As it is he sounds totally at sea, pardon the pun, and simply shouts and grumbles, it's impressive shouting and grumbling but the Dutchman's angst is nowhere in sight. There are some vulgar orchestra balances with which the singers have to contend, as if Levine thought that having certain instruments bray and honk a little on certain phrases would add dramatic effect when all they do is emphasize the strangeness of his aural conception.

The real trouble begins with the womens chorus prior to Senta's Ballade. The Met chorus was notorious for its preponderance of hammy wobblers. Things have since improved, but at the time of this recording the women of the Met chorus were at their very worst, all vying with each other as unrecognized divas with individual wobblers standing out from the ensemble in a very amateurish manner. Levine takes this scene too slowly, over-emphasizing the 'hick' essence of these Nordic dames at their spinning wheels. There is no energy at all. Then Senta begins at the slowest tempo I've ever heard in the Ballade. It's horrible, and Deborah Voigt sings in a completely stentorian manner, as if she were really Isolde in Act I of that opera. There is nothing introspective or neurotic (both hallmarks of Senta's persona) in Voigt's impersonation. She is a diva showing off, that's all. And it's boring and maddening. Levine indulges her in her every whim, dragging the tempo down until there is no momentum at all and the listeners mind goes THUD!

Ben Heppner has found a Wagner role that suits him. Erik is not the voice killer that killed Heppner's voice, like Tristan and Siegfried. He sings beautifully here and fits in like a finger in glove with the shallow show-off nature of the event.

I won't belabor the rest of the performance because it gets no better. I have sadly had to relegate this set to the donation bin for the local University radio station annual yard sale. This was a recording that should have been made somewhere else by Sony, with a different conductor. This recording was a sad waste of time, talent and money, yet for the deathless army of Levine lovers he can do no wrong and they cannot really hear what is going on in this production.

I'd give it one star if it weren't for the good contributions of 5 of the 6 singers and the superb engineering. As it is it falls into the middle with all the other sad mediocrities that come spewing out of the recording companies, loaded with big name stars and no souls.

The Dohnanyi recording of this opera is the one to have if you require modern up-to-date sound. His cast is splendid and the Vienna Philharmonic and State Opera Chorus have this music in their blood.

The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra gives out a spectacular performance, creating enormous power and precision. And that's probably the only thing that's good about this Flying Dutchman. James Levine's tempi are dragged (most notably the "Overture" and the "Spinning Chorus"), making this the least Wagnerian of all studio recordings. The choir is surprisingly unpleasant: their diction isn't good enough and their pitch isn't completely correct. The vocal soloists . . . well, let's just say that even Daniel Barenboim's choice of casting is better than this. As for the sound quality, it's just plain awful: The volume is a bit weak and the bass sound is heard incorrectly.

All in all, if you want to get this ONLY for the orchestral sound, then do it. Otherwise, go for the Solti, Sinopoli, or Klemperer recordings.

I'll just get straight to the point. I agree with the other reviews, this is not a good Dutchman. The cast is certainly decent, if not great, but there are more insightful performances on other sets, Klemperer on EMI having the best cast overall. The amazon review mentions the good sound quality, and it is very good.......if all you want to hear is the orchestra. True the MET orchestra plays superbly, at loud parts the orchestra sounds massive and powerful, impressive in its own right. But the orchestra simultaneously drowns out the singers at every tutti throughout the entire performance. And the loud parts are the only times this performance sounds any good. Levine's shaping of the score is formless and lifeless, lacking in any sense of drive or momentum, sounding pratically comatose in slow and/or quiet sections. Just listen the beginning of Act 2, the maiden's spinning song. No pulse, no verve, no life. I was quite frankly bored listening to this performance. There are many better performances of this piece on record. Among them, the classic Klemperer on EMI; Steinberg on Naxos, a great bargain version; and in the realm of modern digital recordings, Sinopoli on DG and Dohnanyi on Decca are both superb. Get any of them before getting this dud of a performance.