Search - Wagner, Rysanek, Liebl :: Wagner: Der Fliegende Holländer Highlites

The finest of all Flying Dutchmans

Golden Ear | 03/10/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Of all the studio recordings of Wagner's Flying Dutchman, this one is the best, mostly due to the excellent cast.

George London as the Holländer is the non plus ultra in this role. Not only does he possess an extremely dark, noble sound with immense power , but he also sings with great beauty and feeling. Compared to the older Hans Hotter (who recorded this role under Clemens Krauss in the forties), London is much more demonic and threatening. For example in the monologue of act I , where Hotter falls into a kind of weeping in "Dich frage ich, gepriesner Engel Gottes" , while London correctly interprets it the other way : about to boil over, but still restraining all the frustration and hatred. I'm not trying to say, that Hotter sings a bad Dutchman, quite the opposite, its just that he's not perfect and London does get pretty close.



Senta is sung by the great Leonie Rysanek. She too has a voice of magnificent power AND beauty (a most wonderful trait for a singer to have!). Her interpretation shows much of the confusion and passion in the young girl and she never sings out of character. I was very impressed by her.

Karl Liebl is alright as Erik, but better tenors could have been engaged for this role.

Daland is sung by Giorgio Tozzi, who sadly enough fails to bring out the comic/buffo side of Senta's father. Nevertheless he sings with eloquence and a gorgeous ,round sound. He did indeed possess one of the greatest bass voices of all time.

Antal Dorati does a fine job at interpreting the opera, altough he in my opinion doesn't quite reach the level of excitement that Joseph Keilberth did in the 1956 live broadcast from Bayreuth. But that probably results from the fact, that Bayreuth is a magic place, which can't be equaled by clinically clear studios.

The recording crew tried to undo this often awkward, artificial atmosphere of studio records, by putting in sound effects ,like the anchor chain of the dutchman's ship. I don't know if that truely helped.

"

The best Senta ever heard

José Carlos Cidade | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 06/11/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is one of the best Fliegende Hollander on record. George London im an impressive and sensible Hollander and her partner, Rysanek, has the more beautiful Senta's voice on record. Erick's tenor is a little bit [weak] here, but has a beautiful and dramatic voice. The salesman is also very good. I prefer this record over the Klemperer version, that is very good too. If i wuold do just one choice, it will be my first option for this romantic and dark-coloured "chef-d'oeuvre"."