Vienna State Opera

Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina

(complete opera)

Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande

(complete opera)

Wagner: Lohengrin

Handel: Saul

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde

Strauss, R: Capriccio

Live Recording 1964

With its new production on 7th June 2008, the Vienna State Opera revived a long-standing tradition of having the finest representatives of the profession singing Capriccio. The work was first staged in Salzburg in 1950 in a production subsequently seen in Vienna. Both there and in Salzburg, the Countess was for many years sung by Lisa Della Casa in one of the Strauss roles with which she was most closely associated. The present live recording is the first official record of this ideal interpretation, with Georges Prêtre in the pit, vividly demonstrating his Strauss credentials. It virtually goes without saying that the singers who were engaged to appear with Lisa Della Casa were in every way her equals.The difficulty in choosing between poetry and music becomes all the more understandable when the representatives of these two art forms are artists of the stature of Waldemar Kmentt and Walter Berry. Both men were among the company's leading singing actors, bringing to their parts both striking vocalism and an impassioned wooing of the woman on whom they have set their hearts. No less impressive is the American baritone Robert Kerns, whom Herbert von Karajan had invited to join the Vienna State Opera ensemble two years previously and who remained with the company until his premature death at the age of 55 in 1989.As the Count he displays natural charm in his attempts to win the hand of Christa Ludwig's imposing Clairon. Otto Wiener was more of a heroic baritone than either Berry or Kerns, allowing him to bring all the necessary authority to the role of the theatre manager La Roche and to his great address. Last, but not least, are the two 'Italian' singers, whom it would be difficult to imagine better cast today: the young Lucia Popp and Fritz Wunderlich turn Strauss’ witty parody of Italian bel canto singing into a serious highlight.

Anna Netrebko - Opera Arias (Deluxe Edition)

CD+DVD

Christa Ludwig - Vienna State Opera

Works by Mozart, R. Strauss, Rossini, Beethoven,Wagner, Berg, Pfitzner, Bizet, Berlioz, Debussy,Verdi,Tschaikowsky & Einem

Live Recordings 1955 - 1994. The wide-ranging repertory in which Christa Ludwig appeared at the Vienna State Opera, often surprising her audiences over a period of many years, is central to the present set of three CDs issued to mark her 80th birthday. It begins with her Cherubino from Le nozze di Figaro and her Composer from Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, both of which she sang at the Salzburg Festival soon after her Vienna State Opera début in 1955.Another of her early roles in Vienna was Dorabella, while Angelina in Rossini's La Cenerentola was a lyric mezzo-soprano part that she sang only infrequently but to which she brought a stupendous coloratura technique. Her increasingly dramatic roles are represented by excerpts from Fidelio,Wozzeck,Tannhäuser, Lohengrin and Verdi's Macbeth, which also demonstrate the astute use of her resources in those roles that extend well into the soprano register, without ever sacrificing any quality or intensity. Under Leonard Bernstein, the subdued melancholy of her Marschallin is even more overwhelming than it was in the studio. No less impressive is the way in which Christa Ludwig was able to forge a successful working relationship with each of the very different conductors with whom she appeared, be it Karl Böhm, Herbert von Karajan, Lorin Maazel, Claudio Abbado or the conductor of the most recent New Year's Day Concert from Vienna, Georges Prêtre.Throughout her career, she retained a company spirit, happy to appear in smaller roles and, towards the end of her career, in character parts, including Klytämnestra in Elektra, the role in which she bade farewell to the stage in 1994.This final appearance - almost 40 years after her Viennese début - also brings to an end our musical tribute to Christa Ludwig, recalling an altogether exceptional career by this honorary member of the Vienna State Opera.