Join Amazon Prime and get unlimited Free One-Day Delivery. Already a member? Sign in.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
18 used & new from £17.50
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Wagner - Mastersingers
 
See larger image and other views 
Share your own customer images

Wagner - Mastersingers [Box set]

~ Derek Hammond-Stroud (Baritone), Norman Bailey (Baritone), David Bowman (Bass), Eric Stannard (Bass), Gerwyn Morgan (Bass), et al.
4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
Price: £19.08 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Saturday, July 11? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
15 new from £17.50 3 used from £19.95

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this with Wagner - Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg ~ Richard Wagner

Wagner - Mastersingers + Wagner - Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Price For Both: £39.06

One of these items ships sooner than the other. Show details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century

The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century

by Alex Ross
4.4 out of 5 stars (29)  £7.49
Wagner - Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

Wagner - Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

~ Richard Wagner
£19.98
Wagner: Parsifal (Goodall, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House)

Wagner: Parsifal (Goodall, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House)

~ Richard Wagner
5.0 out of 5 stars (2)  £28.98
Fiesta

Fiesta

~ Leonard Bernstein
5.0 out of 5 stars (3)  £13.69
Puccini: Madama Butterfly

Puccini: Madama Butterfly

~ Angela Gheorghiu
4.6 out of 5 stars (12)  £11.98
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Orchestra: Sadler's Wells Opera Orchestra
  • Conductor: Reginald Goodall
  • Composer: Richard Wagner
  • Audio CD (30 Jun 2008)
  • SPARS Code: AAD
  • Number of Discs: 4
  • Format: Box set
  • Label: Chandos
  • ASIN: B001ANZQZU
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 55,257 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)
Nailsworth Computers
   www.nailsworthcomputers.com    George Street Nailsworth 01453 832151 
Hammond
   www.Onboard-Electronics.ltd.uk    Big Range of Enclosures: Metal /Ali & Plastic To Custom Made, Call Us! 
Hammond
   Ask.com    Find the Best Results for Hammond. 
  
 

Product Description

Review
The resounding success of Reginald Goodall's Mastersingers led to his conducting an 'English' Ring at the London Coliseum in the 1970s. That Ring started me recording opera in English so I am thrilled that we have been able to add The Mastersingers to our Opera in English catalogue - alongside Goodall's Ring. --Sir Peter Moores

CD Description
For the first time ever, the legendary centenary production of Wagner's The Mastersingers, conducted by Reginald Goodall is released as a 4-CD set on Chandos Opera in English. Broadcast live on the BBC from Sadler's Wells Theatre on 10 February 1968 Goodall conducted a cast of such luminaries as Alberto Remedios, Norman Bailey, Derek Hammond-Stroud, Gregory Dempsey, Margaret Curphey and Ann Robson. Following the live broadcast the recording sadly disappeared into the archives and has since become one of the most talked about lost performances. Music-lovers have regularly contacted Chandos requesting its release on Opera in English and it is one that Sir Peter Moores was determined to make happen. It even led to an appeal for indivduals recordings of the broadcast! This 4-CD set has subsequently been re-mastered from a BBC Radio live broadcast and is released at the price of 3 CDs. The sound quality reflects the fact it is a 1968 live recording and some deterioration is evident although this does not detract from the fantastic performance value. A popular comic opera The Mastersingers is an ensemble opera in a sense which Wagner s other operas are not. Yet, despite its comic opera standing, it is in fact a deeply spiritual work. Wagner wrote, it is impossible that you should not have sensed, under the opera's quaint superficies of popular humour, the profound melancholy, the lament, the cry of distress of poetry in chains, and its reincarnation, its new birth, its irresistible magic power achieving mastery over the common and the base.

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
Check the boxes next to the tags you consider relevant or enter your own tags in the field below
(3)
(2)
(2)
See all 4 tags...

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags
 

Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars 'Meistersinger' in English: Good News, Bad News -- Mostly Good, 3 Aug 2008
By J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This is a much-talked-about live recording, long thought lost, of a BBC broadcast in 1968 of an English-language production of Wagner's 'Die Meistersinger' from the Sadler's Wells Opera (now called the English National Opera). It was conducted by Reginald Goodall who was all but unknown then but who soon became known and much lauded for his conducting of Wagner's operas. It has an all-English cast, all but one of whom were singing their roles for the first time; the exception was Norman Bailey, who had sung Hans Sachs in Germany (in German, of course).

First, the bad news: Sound quality is not the best. There is some tape hiss, occasional poor balances, a good deal of stage noise (my goodness, you can really hear a lot of clumping around in the last act entrance of the apprentices!), and somewhat dodgy stereo separation. Early on Norman Bailey's voice is rather woolly, although it improves and his vocal acting is marvelous. Margaret Curphey's Eva can turn acidulous, but she is terrific in the last act Quintet. There are some cuts -- primarily a verse from David's first act catalog of tones and from Beckmesser's second act song. The orchestral playing is not always as suave as one might hope. And, of course, there will be those who will be put off by this quintessentially German opera being sung in English. And indeed the translation, by Frederick Jameson (with some changes by Norman Feasey and Gordon Kember) has a few thee's and thou's that make it sound a bit old-fashioned. Still it is an effective translation and it sings well.

Any negatives are outweighed by the good things in the recording. Bailey's Sachs is effective -- and he has the best diction of anyone in the cast; he is human, affecting, suitably humorous, gruff, tender or serious as needed. The David of Gregory Dempsey is one the best I've ever heard. Derek Hammond-Stroud plays Beckmesser as a bit of a caricature, but he sings the music rather than sketching it as many Beckmessers do. Alberto Remedios is one of the best Walthers on record. His tone is meltingly lyrical and he is actually able to sing softly when required, unlike some. He is ardent, heroic, and naïve in turn. His Prize Song is magical, aided significantly by Goodall's rapturously paced conducting. Noel Mangin's Pogner is excellent in his long aria. The rest of the mastersingers are at least adequate or, as in the case of David Bowman as Kothner, much better. Ann Robson is a younger-sounding Magdalene and she sings well. Stafford Dean, then quite young, is a marvelous Nightwatchman. The chorus is sterling from their very first notes at the end of the overture to the paean to Sachs that closes the opera.

The real hero of this performance is Goodall. This is a leisurely-paced 'Mastersingers' but there is never a lull or longueur. Rhythms are well-sprung and the quieter or more lyrical moments are breathtaking, as in the Act III prelude and the last act Quintet. He can build up real excitement, too, as in the overture and the third act entrance of the apprentices and mastersingers, not to speak of the riot that ends Act II.

The boxed 4CD set is being offered for the price of 3CDs and it includes a complete libretto. This will probably not be anyone's only 'Meistersinger', but it certainly belongs on the shelves of those who love this opera and have other recordings of it.

Scott Morrison
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The holy grail of opera recordings, 4 Jul 2008
By Nh Wills "Metal Nick" (woking, surrey England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
The previous review sums it all up. The conducting, playing and singing is sublime. The recording/ remastering quality for a radio broadcast is brilliant.

I played all 4 cds in one sitting the day I bought it.

The only slight negative is the singing in an english translation it does take a bit getting use to (the composer probably would turn in his grave)

If you want to have only one recording of this great masterwork it is well worth considering
Comment Comments (2) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The best 'Mastersingers' I have ever heard., 30 Aug 2008
By Basiledes (North Wales) - See all my reviews
Usually I find the orchestration of this opera a bit over-rich, thick and stodgy, but not so with Goodall. He thins out the texture wonderfully while revealing the counterpoint and the inner parts far clearer than ever before. Here it has such air and space to breath, that instead of being heavy and complacently bourgeois it is light and lyrical.
He achieved much the same thing with 'Parsifal', in the Sadler's Wells version, and transcendance too, and I look forward eagerly to the release of this in the near future.
Apart from it's transparency there is all the macro-view pacing we have come to expect from this conductor, at least in his live recordings. The result, of course, is that you come out of these long acts feeling energised and refreshed. Goodall's slow tempos are energising not enervating. Those who claim the latter have obviously not listened to the whole musical unit of the Act, but have just dipped in for a quick-fix of the sort often supplied by studio recordings.

I would have given this 5 stars if the sound had been up to current standards (or perhaps if the opera itself was less flawed).
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars GOODALL MASTERSINGERS
This is an essential purchase for anyone who had the privilege to attend any of these performances way back in 1968. Read more
Published 2 months ago by J. D. Cheeseright

5.0 out of 5 stars it takes my breath away
so often castigated as slow, Reginald Goodall conducted Wagner as if he were a real composer of proper symphonic music rather than just an opera man. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Graeme Creffield

4.0 out of 5 stars A piece of history
This performance captures the artists performing at their peak. Goodall's inspired conducting brings out the best in everyone and he goes to the core of the music in a way not... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Claudia David

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Wagner - Mastersingers
84% buy the item featured on this page:
Wagner - Mastersingers 4.5 out of 5 stars (6)
£19.08
Wagner: Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg
5% buy
Wagner: Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg 5.0 out of 5 stars (1)
£33.98
Wagner - Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
4% buy
Wagner - Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
£19.98
Wagner: Parsifal (Goodall, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House)
4% buy
Wagner: Parsifal (Goodall, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House) 5.0 out of 5 stars (2)
£28.98
Explore similar items

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Feedback

The Body Shop

The Body Shop - Vitamin C Skin Boost
Protect and boost your glow with The Body Shop Vitamin C Skin Boost.

›Shop The Body Shop

  

Beauty without the Beast

Olay Regenerist Daily 3 Point Treatment Cream
From au naturel to party glam, we have all the best names in cosmetics and skincare.

›Discover Beauty at Amazon.co.uk

  

A Close Shave

Philips Nivea Coolskin HS8060 Moisturizing Rotary Shaving System
For all types of hair removal, stay smooth with Amazon.co.uk.

›Discover Shaving & Hair Removal

  

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

›Learn more about Gift Certificates

  
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.
Continue Shopping: Top Sellers
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
4.5 out of 5 stars (72)£3.86
 Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga)
Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga) by Stephenie Meyer
4.1 out of 5 stars (459)£6.49
 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
4.1 out of 5 stars (162)£3.99
 The Host
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
4.2 out of 5 stars (80)£3.86

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates