Search - Richard [Classical] Wagner, Erich Kleiber, Colon Theater Orchestra (Buenos Aires) :: Wagner: Tristan und Isolde

This release of a live performance from 1948 in Buenos Aires should be a part of any Wagner lover's collection. In the title roles we get Kirsten Flagstad, somewhat late in her career but still in glorious voice (she sings one of the high Cs in Act II and ducks the other!), singing with an outpouring of sound that is as smooth as silk, as finely shaded as a painter's palette, and as voluptuous as a volcanic eruption, along with tenor Set Svanholm. The latter, quite simply, sings the opera's second act more beautifully, with more shading and sensitivity than any other singer I've ever heard; his final act is one great manic-depressive outburst after another. The Brangaene is soprano Viorica Ursuleac, who learned the part for these performances and who sings it as if she had felt it and lived it for years. Kurwenal is the great Hans Hotter, and he is everything Tristan could want--hale, good-natured, caring, loyal--and everything we could want: a singer of great breeding and taste, with a big, somewhat gruff but always expressive sound. King Marke is Ludwig Weber, who, while not plumbing the character's depth as does, say, Martti Talvela (on the superb Boehm recording with Nilsson and Windgassen), nevertheless makes us feel the sad King's plight. Holding it all together is the amazing Erich Kleiber, who captures the emotional adventure of Act I, the dreamy landscape of Act II, and the desperation, longing, and ultimate peace of Act III like no other--not even Furtwängler. This is the best-conducted Tristan on disc. Try to ignore the poor sound--and it can get in the way--and order this right away. It's as deep as the sea, and you'll never forget it. --Robert Levine