Or Ahlersmeyer's Valentin? Hopf's Diavolo or Turridu? Konetzni's Desdemona?
Berger's Antonia?
Well, now you *can*. The sound is amazing, especially for voices -
orchestra passages get a bit blurry, similar to the sound of Met
broadcasts, on AM stations in FM-deprived San Francisco, 2002 AD -
and who says there is progress?
From Mike Richter, Defender of Musical Heritage, comes a wondrous new
treasure house of opera broadcast in German-speaking countries during World
War II. The "Opera auf Deutsch" volume of the Audio Encyclopedia contains
broadcasts, from 1936-1952 of
Auber: Fra Diavolo
Massenet: Manon
Verdi: Aida
Bizet: Carmen
Mozart: Don Giovanni
Verdi: Ernani
Donizetti: Don Pasquale
Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro
Verdi: Falstaff
Dvorak: Rusalka
Offenbach: Tales of Hoffmann
Verdi: Otello
Gounod: Faust
Puccini: La Boheme
Verdi: Requiem
Leoncavallo: Pagliacci
Puccini: Tosca
Verdi: Rigoletto
Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana
Smetana: Bartered Bride
Verdi: Il Trovatore
Gluck: Orfeo
Tchaikowsky: Pique Dame
Verdi: I Vespri Siciliani
Just one cast as an example: "Don G" -
Dresden, 1943
Don Giovanni: Mathieu Ahlersmeyer
Leporello: Kurt Bohme
Il Commendatore: Heinrich Pflanzl
Donna Anna: Marianne Schech
Don Ottavio: Hans Hopf
Donna Elvira: Margarete Teschemacher
Masetto: Gottlob Frick
Zerlina: Elfriede Weidlich
Chor der Staatsoper Dresden
Sachsische Staatskapelle
Karl Elmendorf, cond.
From the introduction:
In the United States the phenomenon of the famous Met Broadcasts is
well known and these recordings are always sought-after - the earliest
available date from 1932, the latest from 2001. In the German-speaking
countries, a similar but technically different approach was chosen.
The broadcasting companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland began
in the twenties with special performances in the radio studios as
live productions, most notably in Berlin under the direction of
Cornelis Broonsgest, a formerly famous Dutch baritone. Thus they
could fulfill the operatic wishes of their listeners, to complement
the small repertory available then on shellac discs. This technical
form of studio production was much simpler from the viewpoint of the
sound engineers than recording really live in opera houses, which
also begin in these days. Needless to say, some of the finest singers
of these times like Joseph Schmidt and Heinrich Schlusnus were among
the performers under such fine conductors as Leo Blech. It is a pity
that only a few, brief excerpts have survived from the earliest times
before 1935.
I am betting that Mike will find even the recordings that have
"disappeared"!
Janos Gereben/SF
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