- Audio CD (1 Jan 1954)
- Number of Discs: 2
- Label: Capriccio
- ASIN: B001UUNBMI
- Other Editions: MP3 Download
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
*** 1/2 A historic-era broadcast with a very good Prologue but not much afterward
18 Mar 2012
Format:Audio CD
Here in excellent broadcast mono is an enjoyable Ariadne auf Naxos with the radio orchestra of Cologne. Joseph Keilberth makes a sympathetic conductor, not as sparkling as Karajan, who recorded his classic Ariadne on EMI the same year (in much patchier sound, alas) but not far behind. The voices are well captured, and even without program notes - my version is a download - I surmise form the controlled setting that this was a studio performance without audience meant solely for the radio. Being live, it had no room for retakes, but this highly experienced cast never has troubles. Two singers, Sena Jurinac as the Composer and Rita Streich as Zerbinetta, undertake signature roles. Both make the first half of the opera, the Prologue set in a rich boor's mansion, as goo =d as it gets.
The second half is the mixture of serious opera and buggo hijinks that makes Ariadne what it is, and here the two lead roles of Ariadne and Bacchus are not clearly a triumph. Soprano Hilde Zadek has an ample, old-fashioned voice that can cope with the considerable demands of Ariadne, and she's clearly an assured veteran. But when set in the long line of prima donnas who have sung the role - Schwarzkopf, Maria Eining, Leontyne Price, Rysanek, and Janowitz immediately come to mind, Zadek sounds rather workaday. As Bacchus, Han Hopf was in is prime, such as it was. He punches out one note after another, strenuous but unflagging, and since the role needs a real Heldentenor, the result is actually acceptable, given how few rivals do any better. But then you hear the magnificent Ben Heppner in Sinopoli's modern set on DG, and Hopf seems woefully lacking. He's close enough to the microphone that he doesn't have to crush rocks in the softer passages, at least.
In the end, this is one slice beyond half a loaf. In the Prologue we get a memorable reading while in the opera Zerbinetta's aria, done with astonishing ease by Streich, is a high point in a mediocre landscape.
The second half is the mixture of serious opera and buggo hijinks that makes Ariadne what it is, and here the two lead roles of Ariadne and Bacchus are not clearly a triumph. Soprano Hilde Zadek has an ample, old-fashioned voice that can cope with the considerable demands of Ariadne, and she's clearly an assured veteran. But when set in the long line of prima donnas who have sung the role - Schwarzkopf, Maria Eining, Leontyne Price, Rysanek, and Janowitz immediately come to mind, Zadek sounds rather workaday. As Bacchus, Han Hopf was in is prime, such as it was. He punches out one note after another, strenuous but unflagging, and since the role needs a real Heldentenor, the result is actually acceptable, given how few rivals do any better. But then you hear the magnificent Ben Heppner in Sinopoli's modern set on DG, and Hopf seems woefully lacking. He's close enough to the microphone that he doesn't have to crush rocks in the softer passages, at least.
In the end, this is one slice beyond half a loaf. In the Prologue we get a memorable reading while in the opera Zerbinetta's aria, done with astonishing ease by Streich, is a high point in a mediocre landscape.
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