J Strauss: Die Fledermaus: Amazon.co.uk: Music

Product details

Composer: Johann II Strauss, Johann Strauss
Audio CD (6 Sep 1999)
Number of Discs: 1
Label: Emi Classics
ASIN: B000026CJ6

Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 195,575 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

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Track Listings

Disc: 1
1. Overture
2. Taubchen, das entflattert ist
3. Hahahaha!
4. Dialog: Ich muss mir fur heute abend Ausgang erschwindeln!
5. Ach, Ich Darf Nicht Hin Zu Dir!
6. Dialog: Wie glucklich die alte Tante ist
7. Nein, Mit Solchen Advokaten
8. Beruh'ge endlich diese Wut
9. Rekurrieren, appellieren
10. Dialog: Also, noch verscharft die Strafe?
See all 17 tracks on this disc
Disc: 2
1. Ein Souper Heut' Uns Winkt
2. Dialog: Amusement! Amusement!
3. Ich lade gern mir Gaste ein
4. Dialog: Das sind allerdings nationale Eigentumlichkeiten
5. Ach, Meine Herren Und Damen
6. Mein Herr Marquins, ein Mann wie Sie
7. Dialog: Na, Herr Marquis
8. Wie fliechen schnell die Stunden fort
9. Dialog: Es ist also wirklich wahr
10. Dieser Anstand, So Manierlich
See all 26 tracks on this disc

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Viennese operetta is a fearful genre to get right. It demands great (often coloratura) voices which can still sparkle with improvisatory freshness, and the whole project has to sound like it was thrown together that afternoon on a whim. It has to fizz like the champagne that so often plays a part in the plot. For the most part, this recording possesses all the right ingredients and mixes them with superb skill. Karajan directs the proceedings with light-hearted precision, and keeps the pace crackling with comic energy. Rita Streich is a fantastic Adele and makes the most of this soubrettish soufflé of a role with a host of silvery voiced coloratura pyrotechnics. She is also an excellent foil to the richer voiced Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, who throws herself into the spirit of things with equal energy. The cons are the laboured German dialogue, given in full, and the casting of a man to sing the mezzo drag role of Orlofsky: but these aside, this account is pure Veuve Cliquot. --Warwick Thompson

Product Description

Brand New Product! Ready to despatch in 2-5 business days worldwide international delivery. Established seller since 1999.

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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Come with me to a supper. 7 July 2002

By John Austin HALL OF FAME TOP 1000 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE

"Come with me to a supper."
So sings Dr Falke to his crony Eisenstein.
And what a supper it turns out to be! Besides the champagne, the dancing and the food provided at the villa of the world-weary young Prince Orlovsky, we see Eisenstein flirting with a masked "Hungarian lady" (Eisenstein's wife in disguise), Eisenstein's maid Adele (in a ball dress filched from her mistress's wardrobe) pretending to be an actress, and Dr Falke arranging a "pay back" for Eistenstein who had recently concocted a joke by which Dr Falke had been made to sneak home, after a fancy dress ball, through the city streets dressed as a bat.

Listening to the music that Johann Strauss Jnr provided for this "supper", it is hard to believe that "Die Fledermaus" was taken off after only 16 performances at its premiere Vienna season. Soon after, however, it was taken up elsewhere, notably in Hamburg where it was conducted by Mahler. Nowadays, it can be seen everywhere (often in up-dated productions), and music lovers can select from umpteen recorded versions.

This one has recently gravitated to the prestigious "Great Recordings of the Century" eminence. It is one of a classic series of recordings made in the mid 1950s by the producer Walter Legge. Featuring the orchestra he created (the Philharmonia), his wife Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, and the conductor whose career he had thus far promoted (Herbert von Karajan), it still remains one of the best recommendations despite its limited monaural sound. There is verve and sparkle a-plenty, the casting is flawless, there is a strong sense of ensemble, and dialogue is included.... Read more ›

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The best 3 July 2007

By A music fan

Karajan's first recording is often ovelooked, but it is a wonderful thing, and once you own it you will not need any others. Schwarzkopf's Rosalinde is fine, as is Gedda's Eisenstein, but the real star of the show is Rita Streich as Adele. She gives a wonderful performance, and the det is worth buying for her alone. Kunz as Falke is fine, but Franz Boheim's extremely drunk Frosch is slightly annoying. However, a great introduction to Fledermaus, and a bargain at the price Amazon is offering.

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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Famous 1955 recording with Schwarzkopf and Streich fabulous as Rosalinda and Adele 26 Aug 2010

By L. E. Cantrell

SOURCE:
Studio recording made in the Kingsway Hall, London February 26 to April 30, 1955.

SOUND:
Leading edge 1955 mono. The recording was highly regarded when it was issued and still remains a fine example of the old technology. The newer stereo recording techniques were available as early as 1954 but were not used for this "Fledermaus." Walter Legge (1906-1979), in one of the few truly bad decisions of a spectacular career as a producer, completely underestimated the value of stereo sound reproduction and stubbornly believed that he could ignore it.

CAST:
Gabriel von Eisenstein, a prosperous Viennese gentlemen with a roving eye - Nicolai Gedda (tenor)
Rosalinde, his wife - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (soprano)
Alfred, Rosalinde's would be lover - Helmut Krebs (tenor)
Adele, Rosalinde's maid - Rita Streich (soprano)
Dr. Falke, Eisenstein's good friend but also the victim of one of his practical jokes - Erich Kunz (baritone)
Herr Frank, Governor of the City Prison - Karl Doench (baritone)
Prince Orlowsky, a jaded and bored visiting aristocrat - Rudolf Christ (tenor)
Dr. Blind, Eisenstein's lawyer - Erich Majkut (tenor)
Ida, Adele's sister - Luise Martini (speaker)
Frosch, a jailer - Franz Boeheim (speaker)

CONDUCTOR:
Herbert von Karajan with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus.

TEXT:
The spoken dialogue has been trimmed down by Walter Legge until it provided only the minimum required plot development and connectivity. Unlike Karajan's recorded live performance of five years later, there is no interpolated "gala" of interpolated performances in Act II. Also omitted from that act is the ballet music.

COMMENTARY:
This was the third complete recording of "Die Fledermaus...." The first was made over a century ago in 1907 and the second was a fine performance under the baton of Clemens Krauss in 1950.

The roots of Johann Strauss II's "Die Fledermaus" stretch back to an 1851 German farce by Robert Benedix, "Die Gefängnis" ("The Prison"). In 1872, that admirable pair of hacks, Meilhac and Halévy, cobblers of libretti for Offenbach and Bizet, converted the old German play into a French vaudeville, "Le réveillon" ("The Revel" or perhaps "The Christmas Eve Party"). In 1873-4, the French text was re-translated back into German for Strauss to set to music, but with all references to Christmas carefully expunged as a sop to respectable Viennese sensibilities. Oddly enough, the one-time Christmas Eve tale has taken firm root in Austria and elsewhere as a New Year's Eve entertainment.

If there exists a poor recording of "Die Fledermaus," I have never encountered it. Each major recording has its unique merits and its champions. Choosing the best among them is simply an exercise in expressing personal taste. "Chacun," as we are wisely advised, "à son go�t." I shall limit myself to pointing out some of the salient characteristics of this recording.

This mono recording was produced by Walter Legge. That fact alone is a guarantee that this was intended to be a sumptuous, top-of-the-line affair.

The production is permeated throughout by the presence of Herbert von Karajan. You WILL hear precision here, ja! You'll also hear some very, very fast tempi, some would say too fast. Karajan was a Salzburger, not a Viennese; nevertheless, he brings a definite Viennese lilt into the playing of the manifestly non-Austrian band. (Karajan being Karajan, of course, there is occasionally the feeling that all that lilting is marching by at attention.)

This studio production, unlike the Krauss version that preceded it, and at least one stereo version that followed it, comes with spoken dialogue. It's truncated, but it's there.

The cast boast a trio of truly stellar luminosity in Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Rita Streich and Nicolai Gedda. On the basis of those three alone, this is arguably the best sung recorded performance of "Die Fledermaus." Many would say that there is a fourth stellar singer, Erich Kunz, a baritone of immense--and to me wholly inexplicable--popularity in Austria, for whom I normally have no use whatsoever. He is adequate as Dr. Falke.)

For Schwarzkopf, the role of Rosalinde was a step toward a new career path. Hitherto, her part had been Adele. She was shifting from light songbird to a performer of immensely greater depth. Her fans hold her as the exemplar of all Rosalindes. Her detractors regard her Rosalinde as an early example of her over-thought and over-mannered mature style. As for myself, I can't readily imagine anyone improving on her Roselinde and that only Lotte Lehmann in the past might possibly have matched it.

Rita Streich is a fabulous Adele. She was the leading German coloratura of her era, just as Erna Berger had been before her. Her dramatic range was not wide nor was her voice very large, but Adele suited her perfectly. I can't name anyone subsequent to this recording who was her match in the part, let alone her better.

Nicolai Gedda, like Richard Tauber before him is a lyric tenor Eisenstein. The role doesn't go very high, so baritones can and have attempted it. I prefer a tenor, because Act II is vocally unbalanced without the presence of at least one tenor on stage. Gedda is very good, but I think he sings just a little too sweetly to be a perfect Eisenstein. I prefer a tenor with a bent for character roles, a natural-born Monostatos or Herod, such as Julius Patzak.

The rest of the cast is uniformly admirable save for the controversial handling of the part of Prince Orlofsky. Strauss wrote the part for a mezzo-soprano. He is supposed to be bored and jaded young man, hardly more than a boy. Tenor Rudolf Christ sounds like a forty-ish cabaret singer with a serious buzz on, whether from drink, drugs or both, I can't say. My personal reaction to him is that he coarsens Act II unnecessarily.

This is a famous recording with some unbeatable performances, all at a reasonable price.

Five stars. Read more ›

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