Wagner: Wie aus der Ferne längst (from Der Fliegende Holländer)

Fritz Feinhals (1869 – 1940) was a German baritone whose career was mainly centered around Europe and the Metropolitan Opera where he was famous for his performances in Wagnerian opera. This release features recordings of him singing Wagner made between 1907 and 1911.

Looking back at Tristan und Isolde twenty years after its composition, Wagner told his wife Cosima: ‘My model was Romeo and Juliet – nothing but duets!’ He was invoking Bellini’s opera I Capuleti e i Montecchi, which he had conducted many times as a young man. Indeed, there had been much in the Italian master’s legacy that had impressed the young Wagner, including the ‘long, long, long melodies’ that Verdi described, and the technique of melodic sequence in which a phrase is repeated with rising pitch and heightened effect. The erotic potential of such procedures is famously exploited in the ‘night of love’ in Act II of Tristan und Isolde. And while this might well claim to be Wagner’s best-known duet, this innovative 2CD set, compiled by Australia’s Wagner expert Peter Bassett (who also contributes the notes) brings together a collection of dialogues, musical conversations and duets from the major Wagner operas.

The recordings are among the finest ever made. The singers are a Who’s Who of great names from the sixties, seventies and eighties – Fischer-Dieskau, Janowitz, Vickers, Thomas, Price, Kollo… with conductors like Karajan, Kleiber and Jochum directing these revelatory performances. The breadth and diversity of the emotion on this double album is matched by the generous playing times: more than two hours and forty minutes of music on a 2CD set.

One of the most outstanding bass-baritones between 1920 and 1950. For twelve years he was one of the most outstanding performers at Bayreuth.

Karl Elmendorff and Kurt Striegler were two of many composers responsible for splendid interpretations of Wagner's operas in Dresden in the first half of the twentieth century. At their disposal was the incomparable Staatskapelle, a high quality opera chorus and many outstanding singers, some of which appear on this recording. Featured are works from a selection of Wagner’s most famous operas.

This special priced 3 CD set entitled the Festival of the Primadonnas, features some of the greatest sopranos of our time singing arias from great operas such as Tosca, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Traviata, Aida, Don Giovanni and Fidelio to name a few.

This wide selection is sung by sopranos including Maria Callas and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and they are accompanied by an impressive selection of orchestras and conductors.

All items recorded between 1972 and 1985