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Topic: 050) Capriccio 1957
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Strauss's last opera is one of the wonders of lyric art: an intelligent conversation piece about aesthetic principles (which is more important, words or music?) wrapped in achingly beautiful music. Its humor and drama are subtler than we're used to, but the opera is no less pleasurable for it. Capriccio's reputation as a connoisseur's piece is well served by this 1957 recording that features a superb cast led by the distinguished Straussian Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. True, she could be mannered, but the role of the Countess who must decide between the poet and the musician fits her like a glove, and she's radiant in the final, soaring monologue. Everyone else in the cast is outstanding, and the monophonic sound is so clear that you almost won't miss stereo. Sawallisch has the Philharmonia playing with the utmost transparency. Karl Böhm's DG stereophonic version with Gundula Janowitz is almost as fine (although currently out of print), but this one, like vintage wine, just gets better and better. --Dan Davis
Countess Madeleine - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
The count - Eberhard Wächter
Flamand - Nicolai Gedda
Olivier - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
La Roche - Hans Hotter
Clairon - Christa Ludwig
Monsieur Taupe - Rudolf Christ
Italian singer - Anna Moffo
Italian tenor - Karl Schmitt-Walter
Philharmonia Orchestra, conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch, London 1957
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Updated: Tuesday, 17 September 2013 11:30 AM MEST
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