Search - Tom Krause, Ludwig van Beethoven, Lorin Maazel :: Beethoven: Fidelio

Excellent!

Dag Kyndel | Hölö, Sweden | 11/12/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There are very many recordings of Fidelio out there. Most of them are available. I have listened to 80% of them, because this is my favourite opera. Two of all these recordings qualify as the very best: Christa Ludwig/Jon Vickers/Klemperer/EMI (Nilsson should have been Klemperer's Leonore but by some reason that idea never materialized) and Birgit Nilsson/James McCracken/Maazel/Decca.

Maazel's version has been reissued recently in two versions, one on the Decca/Eloquence label without texts and comments, and one (much better!) with texts and comments, also on Decca.

Both these versions, EMI and Decca, are very dramatic. When listening to Christa Ludwig I like what I hear but I cannot help remembering - from her memoirs - that she always was very afraid of the tessitura in this role.

Birgit Nilsson - in top form - sings with great intensity as if Leonore was an easy role. As you know, it is not.

If I did not have any recording of this masterpiece, I would chose BOTH Klemperer's and Maazel's"