The Dream Siegfried

[Guest]

Richard Caniell at Guild CDs was responsible for putting together the "Dream Ring" a few years ago by combining various recordings together and publishing it on CD. It was not as bad as I thought it might be considering he mixed live and commercial recordings most of which were conducted by different people.
However it was by necessity limited by the type of recordings he was able to use.
Here now, we can dispense with those limitations and let the imagination run wild.

So here we go - the only rule is that all participants must be obtainable on commercially released CDs or downloads (live or not does not matter).

Siegfried - Lauritz Melchior,has to be undoubtably the greatest in history.MET 1937 (Various) (Hans Hopf a distant second, with Windgassen an honourable third)
Mime - Julius Patzak, a great artist, uses his talents as a great lieder singer to characterise the role. RAI Ring/ Furtwängler
Wanderer - Hans Hotter circa 1953-58 - as with Melchior - no contest. (Orfeo-Testament-Melodram).
Alberich - Otakar Kraus -I saw both him and Neidlinger - both great - the difference is so small (Melodram)
Fafner - Josef Greindl, one of my favourite singers, although I would not say no to Emmanuel List (Orfeo )
Woodbird - Joan Sutherland - luxury casting indeed, but none better. Pearl CDs CG 1954.
Brünnhilde - Kirsten Flagstad - the soprano , the greatest. Met 1937/La Scala 1950 M&A/Pristine Audio.

Conducted by Furtwängler(pre war) or Rudolf Kempe

Venue - Bayreuth - it is the most incredible feeling in the auditorium when the house lights go down, because there is no light from the covered orchestra pit and the sound just begins as one sits in the darkness - wonderful.
Oh yes, we will have to journey to Bayreuth for this.

[amateur51]

Richard Caniell at Guild CDs was responsible for putting together the "Dream Ring" a few years ago by combining various recordings together and publishing it on CD. It was not as bad as I thought it might be considering he mixed live and commercial recordings most of which were conducted by different people.
However it was by necessity limited by the type of recordings he was able to use.
Here now, we can dispense with those limitations and let the imagination run wild.

So here we go - the only rule is that all participants must be obtainable on commercially released CDs or downloads (live or not does not matter).

Siegfried - Lauritz Melchior,has to be undoubtably the greatest in history.MET 1937 (Various) (Hans Hopf a distant second, with Windgassen an honourable third)
Mime - Julius Patzak, a great artist, uses his talents as a great lieder singer to characterise the role. RAI Ring/ Furtwängler
Wanderer - Hans Hotter circa 1953-58 - as with Melchior - no contest. (Orfeo-Testament-Melodram).
Alberich - Otakar Kraus -I saw both him and Neidlinger - both great - the difference is so small (Melodram)
Fafner - Josef Greindl, one of my favourite singers, although I would not say no to Emmanuel List (Orfeo )
Woodbird - Joan Sutherland - luxury casting indeed, but none better. Pearl CDs CG 1954.
Brünnhilde - Kirsten Flagstad - the soprano , the greatest. Met 1937/La Scala 1950 M&A/Pristine Audio.

Conducted by Furtwängler(pre war) or Rudolf Kempe

Venue - Bayreuth - it is the most incredible feeling in the auditorium when the house lights go down, because there is no light from the covered orchestra pit and the sound just begins as one sits in the darkness - wonderful.
Oh yes, we will have to journey to Bayreuth for this.

Sounds like you've got this one sorted, slarty I don't know enough to offer you an argument and I'm currently dipping into the Wagner's Vision: Bayreuth Heritage box (what an astounding bargain it is) with great enjoyment.

We just need to decide what sorts of treats to take for the intervals

[verismissimo]

I've often wondered why HMV used the "decent" Florence Easton as Brunnhilde in their potted Siegfried from the early 30s. Were Frida Leider and Florence Austral unavailable?

My preference for Brunnhilde, replacing Flagstad, would be either of those two, or Marjorie Lawrence. But none of them recorded the role IIRC.

[slarty]

It was probably to do with contracts. Leider sang for Electrola which later became part of the EMI group.
Marjorie Lawrence can be heard as Brünnhilde in the Naxos issue of Götterdämmerung from the MET in 1936 - the sound is rough at first, but one get's used to it.
A tremendous singer, whose career was totally wrecked by catching Polio at the time she would have come into her own at the beginning of WW2.

The Bayreuth Heritage Box is a tremendous bargain offering a "cherry picked" selection of some of the best performances of the "Neu Bayreuth" period along with all the extras.

[Richard Tarleton]

By coincidence I'm part way through watching the Barenboim/Bayreuth DVD, with much the same cast as I saw in the Haitink Ring (twice) at the ROH in the nineties. Graham Clark was a great Mime, both as singer and actor.

I like the Desmond Shawe-Taylor review of Sutherland in the Solti Siegfried when it came out, quoted in "Ring Resounding" -

...JS's Woodbird, a piece of ritzy casting, has come in for criticism on the ground that her travelling instructions to Siegfried are far from clear. Well, I admit she is no station announcer; but in point of fact the part is curiously difficult to articulate, and others don't do it much better.

The implication being that some do it better - but who? No idea.

[verismissimo]

We just need to decide what sorts of treats to take for the intervals

Marathon? Or, in the case of a particularly risible production, Snickers?

[Petrushka]

I'm currently dipping into the Wagner's Vision: Bayreuth Heritage box (what an astounding bargain it is) with great enjoyment.

I've had this box since June but have hardly had time to play much of it. Bargain of the year for me. Hoping to get stuck in during the autumn. For some reason, I tend to associate Wagner, the Ring especially, with dark autumn nights and the run up to Christmas. Probably because the BBC used to broadcast the Bayreuth Rings at that time back in the 1970s.

I'd agree that slarty seems to have this one sorted.

[slarty]

By coincidence I'm part way through watching the Barenboim DVD, with much the same cast as I saw in the Haitink Ring (twice) at the ROH in the nineties. Graham Clark was a great Mime, both as singer and actor.

I like the Desmond Shawe-Taylor review of Sutherland in the Solti Siegfried when it came out, quoted in "Ring Resounding" -




The implication being that some do it better - but who? No idea.

I remember that remark from DST, I think he was just being "sniffy" at Decca for splashing the cash in such a way.
In all the Rings I have seen or heard, I don't remember any singing any clearer than Joan. Even Reggie's english woodbird was not much clearer.
I think that the high soprano voice is the most difficult to enunciate and the most difficult to understand.
I thought that your Woodbird in the Barenboim performance is as good as any.