Amazon.co.uk Review
This digitally remastered recording is from 1976, the year of English National Opera's mammoth and triumphant
Ring cycle. The tapes were laid down during live performances in the Coliseum, home of ENO, and clearly have the qualities one would expect from a performance in that rather cavernous space--sometimes the orchestra balance sounds a little eccentric, and sometimes singers wander too far from the microphone and are simply swallowed up in the sound. But for almost unbearably sustained tension, passion and drama--and some outstanding singing--this is a wonderful set. Rita Hunter is a remarkable Brünnhilde, powerful yet vulnerable, and Norman Bailey sings Wotan with a gripping edge of despair. But ultimately this is Goodall's
Ring, of course: he draws everything from savagery to delicacy from the ENO Orchestra, and is alive to every nuance of the drama, both on stage and in the pit. And as if that weren't enough, the translation is a masterpiece. --
Warwick Thompson