Wagner: Die Walküre Metropolitan Opera

None of the previous reviewers has offered much information to supplement their gushing praise for this broadcast of Die Walkure from Feb. 24, 1968. In small print the booklet informs us that this was part of Herbert von Karajan's ambitious but ill-fated Ring at the Met, which accounts for the presence of great voices in every part. Critics and audiences objected to Karajan's dimly lit, abstract staging, and various conflicts (including a moment in rehearsal when Birgit Nilsson broke a strand of pearls in her frustration with the conductor -- if I remember right) led to its termination of the conductor's participation after the staging of Rheingold and Walkure.But in hindsight one can see what a gigantic leap forward this production represented for the Met, then saddled with routine Wagner conductors (at best), musty staging, and a scrappy orchestra. The Levine era was just around the corner; still, Karajan brought international standards to the pit. there is a broadcast of Walkure from 1969 where he actually conducts. Here we get a serviceable substitute in the Croatian conductor Berislav Klobucar, then in his mid-Forties; he was conducting at Bayreuth during this period, also, but his leadership cannot be said to substitute for Karajan, even though orchestral execution is more secure than the norm for that era at the Met.The sound is goodish mono, with the voices caught close up and realistically. The orchestra isn't too recessive, but they are secondary in the engineering and sound rather dry -- don't expect sumptuousness. As for the singers, Vickers and Stewart reprise Siegmund and Wotan from Karajan's contemporary Ring cycle on DG; as Brunnhilde and Fricka, Nilsson and Ludwig arrive from Ring cycles under Solti and Bohm. At the time Hans Hotter was nearing the end of his career as a vocally viable Wotan, the other candidate at the time being Theo Adam. As a fan of Stewart's young-sounding, fierce Wotan, I'm grateful that he steps in -- for the 1969 broadcast the Wotan was a more pedestrian Adam, whose reputation in Wagner baffles me. Leonie Rysanek had sung Sieglinde under many conductors, . The Hunding is Karl Ridderbusch, a Karajan favorite who went on to sing Sachs under him; here he is vocally impressive but rather lacking in ferocity. By any standard this is a cast for the ages, and it satisfies old hands who regretted at the time that Karajan and Solti had divvied up the greatest Bayreuth veterans, leaving both their recorded Ring cycles sounding incomplete (but with Solti getting the best of the lot, all told).In the end, if you don't mind monaural sound and Klobucar's fairly ordinary conducting, this historical Walkure is self-recommending and augurs well for all the Met broadcasts that Sony has been allowed to release, after decades when the Met zealously guarded its recording rights in the U.S.

This was a Saturday matinee broadcast. I saw the following Monday evening performance so it was interesting to compare my memories of that performance with this one. On Monday Lorengar subbed for Rysanek, Crespin for Nilsson and Barbro Ericson for Ludwig. [On Monday Ericson also sang one of the Walkure. In this very dimly lit production I doubt she needed to change much of her costume or make-up for the two roles.] If Ericson had lacked in any way I certainly would have noticed. So I think she was fine but I don't think she matched the excellent Christa Ludwig. But as far as I'm concerned, Lorengar and Crespin were both improvements over Rysenek and Nilsson. Lorengar had a lovely voice fully up to the Wagnerian orchestra (she was also an excellent Eva at the Met). Better than the somewhat shrill and forced Rysenek. At this point in her career Nilsson was mostly loud. Crespin's voice was certainly smaller but was far more than just Nilsson's loud sound. The men are excellent and all in all this is a good performance. The cover photo does not come from the Met production. It looks like it dates to the 50s. Hard to believe the recording is more than 50 years old.

Just look at this cast. Birgit Nilsson in absolute prime with high Cs blazing, Jon Vickers in one of his best roles also in prime, Leonie Rysanek in the role she owned from the early 50s till she switched to mezzo soprano (roughly 25 years, Christa Ludwig in her younger days as a perfect Fricka, Thomas stewart in his best role, and Karl Ridderbusch who was a perfect Hunding. Add to that Klobucar's conducting and you have a performance of really thrilling nature. This is not a studio job, spliced together after weeks of recording. it's a performance. Yes, I heard Jon Vickers make a wrong entrance, but so what? After about 1 minute the slightly restricted sound hits our ears with easy balance and power.For those who want to know, Vickers holds "Wälse" a long time. Rysanek does scream (it's called for but usually omitted), and Nilsson sings huge high Cs. The performance flows with a natural ease that surely must have helped the singers along. With performances like this, no wonder this is one of the most popular operas of the Ring.This shows us how singers actually sound in performance. No enhancement by mikes or echo chambers.Now, how about Nilsson and Hopf in Siegfried?

The Met has had an amazing legacy of Wagner, with over 3500 performances dominating even Bayreuth with its 2500 or so performances. One of the great things about the Met is that so many performances from the past can be heard today as a result of broadcasts going back 80 years now. Although the "golden age" of Wagner at the Met may have been in 1930s/40s, there was still some great singing to be heard later as shown by this recording. It is great to hear Nilsson with Vickers, but for me a real treat was hearing (the American) Thomas Stewart as Wotan who sang strongly and with good dramatic sense - a very human god. The sound is quite good on the recording, with most of the voices (with the exception of the Valkyries in the beginning of Act III) captured quite clearly and in good balance with the orchestra. The orchestra sound/performance is not as good as (say) the live Bohm performance from Bayreuth a few years earlier, but the singing really is excellent.It is good to finally have this on record and at a reasonable price. It could be a fine stand-alone recording of the opera, though if pressed, I would suggest the London recording with Nilsson/Vickers recording under Leinsdorf that comes with great sound, a reasonable price, and a (on the disk) libretto.This may not be the very best Walkure (too many choices!) but it is an excellent one. Let's be glad Sony is releasing some of these great performances!

This is a great performance of Die Walkure, but then how could it not be. Jon Vickers is the the greatest Siegmund of all time, and Birgit Nilsson is wonderful as Brunnhilde. I never liked Thomas Stewart as Wotan, but he isn't that bad in my opinion in this performance.

perfect

Es un disco fantastico lo recomiendo muchisimo, es de los mejores que he escuchado ultimamente, es muy bueno para regalarlo

LIVE - 24.02.1968 - UN' OTTIMA SERATA AL MET DI N.Y - UN CAST CHE RACCHIUDE I MIGLIORI CANTANTI WAGNERIANI DELL' EPOCA, COME SOLO RIUSCIVA, AL DI FUORI DI BAYREUTH, SOLO IL TEATRO AMERICANO. LA DIREZIONE E' DI B. KLOBUCAR, ALLIEVO DI CLEMENT KRAUSS E LOVRO VON MATATIC: UN OTTIMA BACCHETTA! LE PUNTE DI DIAMANTE DI QUESTA REGISTRAZIONE SONO B.NILSSON, J.VICKERS, K. RIDDERBUSCH, T. STEWART E C. LUDWIG: COSA VOLETE DI PIU'? GRANDE SUCCESSO E TANTISSIMI APPLAUSI. OTTIMA RESA ACUSTICA. RIMASTERIZZAZIONE DIGITALE.

C'est un véritable coffre aux trésors qu'a ouvert Sony Classical Grâce à un partenariat avec le Metropolitan Opera, qui lui permet d'éditer une série d'archives issues des diffusions radiophoniques de grandes représentations live du temple de l'opéra New-Yorkais, dans un new remastering basé sur les sources originales !En cette fin d'année 1967 et début 1968, la Walkyrie de Richard Wagner est à l'affiche avec, pour la première fois au Metropolitan, le maestro autrichien Herbert von Karajan. Il dirige les représentations de novembre et décembre (dans une visions très "karajanesque" qui partagea d'ailleurs la critique) puis, de passage en Europe début 68 (il donnera notamment une 9ème de Beethoven à l'Opéra de Berlin en janvier), Karajan contracte une double pneumonie qui l'empêche de retraverser l'Atlantique. C'est Berislav Klobucar qui assurera finalement les représentations restantes.Dans cette captation du 24 Février 1968, le Met regroupait sur ses planches un casting étourdissant. Ne tournons pas autour du pot : tous les grands protagonistes (ou presque) sont ici incarnés par leur plus illustre interprête du moment, et tous sont captés à leur meilleur, affichant pour l'occasion une forme olympique !Birgit Nilsson est Brünnhilde, l'une des plus grandes du siècle, et ici dans l'une de ses meilleurs incarnations. Avec ses fabuleux moyens vocaux, une aisance confondante, et une implication plus perceptible que ce que ses studios laissent parfois entendre, elle est autant impressionante que parfaite, et nous convainct sans peine qu'elle est la fille d'un Dieu !Ce Dieu est incarné par Thomas Stewart, le Wotan favori de Karajan. Bien sûr il est difficile de succéder au grand Hans Hotter dans ce rôle; pourtant le baryton-basse américain est un immense Wotan, à la fois noble et profondément humain, superbement dramatique et émouvant, faisant preuve d'une intelligence du texte exceptionnelle. Des moyens et une signature vocale peu commune qui lui vaudront aussi chez Wagner d'être un indispensable Amfortas, de même qu'un Sachs royal et un grand Hollandais.Jon Vickers est inscrit dans les mémoires comme l'une des plus grandes incarnations du rôle de Siegmund; il nous offre ici peut-être sa plus belle prestation (c'est dire !), l'un des plus beaux Siegmund de toute la discographie. Il fallait à ce Walsung d'exception une Sieglinde à la hauteur; on pouvait difficilement rêver mieux que la grande Leonie Rysanek pour remplir cet office ! Rysanek est ici à son meilleur, et l'on est captivé par l'énergie irrésistible dégagé par sa véritable possession du rôle.Voilà donc un couple de jumeaux incestueux proche de l'idéal, qui va trouver sur sa route le sombre Hunding du sous-estimé Karl Ridderbusch (lequel fut en studio, rappelons-le, le Daland du Hollandais de Böhm, ainsi que le Roi Marke du Lohengrin de Kubelik, tous deux également avec Thomas Stewart). Enfin, last but not least, Fricka trouve ici en la jeune Christa Ludwig une interprête idéale et luxueuse. Les Walkyries, elles, sonnent globalement comme les trompettes divines; parmi ces soeurs signalons la présence de Barbro Ericson (Siegrune), qui en 1964 incarnait à Bayreuth la remarquable Kundry du dernier Parsifal de Knappertsbusch (avec Stewart, Vickers et Hotter).Klobucar dirige l'orchestre du Met avec à la fois vigueur et sensibilité, faisant preuve d'une vitalité omniprésente et d'un vrai sens dramatique. On n'irait pas jusqu'à dire que le chef croate est la meilleure baguette de la discographie (la concurrence est rude !), mais il fournit en tout cas un travail digne d'éloges, et fait ici honneur à son maître Clemens Kraus.Avec son casting de rêve et pour la première fois en CD, dans un son mono mais très bien restauré d'après les bandes radiophoniques originales, voilà donc une journée du Ring électrisante, que l'on recommandera sans réserve !Signalons encore que Nilsson et Vickers gravèrent quelques années plus tôt (en septembre 1961) une Walkyrie studio à connaître, avec de grands noms dans leur seule captation des rôles : le Wotan impressionnant de George London, la Sieglinde de la trop rare Gré Brouwenstijn, et la Fricka de Rita Gorr, sous la direction d'Erich Leinsdorf (à petit prix chez Decca).