Though postwar Germany was in many ways a devastated and demoralized country, in one realm at least, the 1950s were the best of times, and that was in the realm of Wagnerian opera. Despite their posthumous association with the discredited Nazi regime, the music dramas of Wagner were stunningly well-served by a host of great conductors and singers. Take this August 12, 1952, recording of Die Walküre from the Bayreuth Festival, the high temple of Wagner's art. Its cast is generally first-class, with Günther Treptow's ...
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Though postwar Germany was in many ways a devastated and demoralized country, in one realm at least, the 1950s were the best of times, and that was in the realm of Wagnerian opera. Despite their posthumous association with the discredited Nazi regime, the music dramas of Wagner were stunningly well-served by a host of great conductors and singers. Take this August 12, 1952, recording of Die Walküre from the Bayreuth Festival, the high temple of Wagner's art. Its cast is generally first-class, with Günther Treptow's youthfully heroic Siegmund, Inge Borkh's intensely passionate Sieglinde, Josef Greindl's robustly brutal Hunding, Hans Hotter's magnificently tragic Wotan, and Astrid Varnay's simply iridescent Brünnhilde. The conducting by Joseph Keilberth is generally dramatic, always sympathetic to the soloists, and often thrilling; each act's close is electrifying. The cast plays the drama well, with Treptow and Borkh ravishing as the star-crossed lovers, and Hotter and Varnay moving as the estranged...
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