Description
ZYX Music: Richard Wagner — Der fliegende Holländer (Knappertsbusch, Bayreuth 1955) 2 CD
Brand new! Factory packaged! As pictured! Buy with confidence!
Product Details:
- UPC: 090204645640
- Catalog Number: CLA 10136-2
- Product Type: Audio CD
- Brand / Label: ZYX Music
- Composer: Richard Wagner (1813–1883)
- Conductor: Hans Knappertsbusch
- Performers: Chor und Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele
- Recording: Bayreuth Festival, Festspielhaus, 22 July 1955 (live)
- Reissue Year: 2012
- Genre: Classical / Opera (Romantic opera in three acts)
Product Features
- Format: 2 CD (complete recording / Gesamtaufnahme)
- Discs: 2
- Sung in: German
- Cast: Ludwig Weber, Astrid Varnay, Wolfgang Windgassen, Elisabeth Schärtel, Josef Traxel, Hermann Uhde
- Condition: New, factory sealed
- Made in the E.E.C. (LC 07256)
Overview
This is the storied 1955 Bayreuth Holländer — captured live in the Festspielhaus on 22 July, with Hans Knappertsbusch in the pit and a cast that reads like a roll call of the postwar Wagner golden age. ZYX has reissued the complete recording across two discs for collectors who chase the great historic Bayreuth performances rather than glossy studio remakes.
Wagner's tale is one of his most gripping: a sea captain cursed to sail the oceans forever, allowed ashore only once every seven years, redeemable only by the faithful love of a woman. When the Dutchman meets Senta, daughter of Captain Daland, the drama tightens — because Senta is already promised to the huntsman Erik.
The cast is the draw. Astrid Varnay's Senta and Hermann Uhde's Dutchman are among the most admired assumptions of these roles ever recorded, with Wolfgang Windgassen as Erik and Ludwig Weber as Daland. Knappertsbusch shapes it all with the unhurried grandeur that made him a Bayreuth legend. A breathtaking historic document, brand new and still factory sealed.
Interesting Facts
- This performance was recorded live at the Bayreuth Festival on 22 July 1955, conducted by Hans Knappertsbusch, one of the most revered Wagner conductors of the 20th century.
- Astrid Varnay was among the leading Wagnerian sopranos of the 1950s Bayreuth ensemble, celebrated for her dramatic intensity as Senta and Brünnhilde.
- Hermann Uhde became closely identified with the title role of the Dutchman, bringing a haunted, tormented quality to the cursed sea captain.
- Der fliegende Holländer (1843) was Wagner's breakthrough work, the first opera in which his mature dramatic style began to emerge.
- The legend was partly inspired by Wagner's own stormy sea voyage from Riga to London in 1839, which left a deep impression on the young composer.
- Wolfgang Windgassen, here singing Erik, would go on to become Bayreuth's leading heldentenor of the era.
Track Listing
Der fliegende Holländer — Romantic opera in three acts, complete recording across 2 CDs. Roles:
- Daland (a Norwegian sea captain) — Ludwig Weber
- Senta (his daughter) — Astrid Varnay
- Erik (a huntsman) — Wolfgang Windgassen
- Mary (Senta's nurse) — Elisabeth Schärtel
- Daland's Steersman — Josef Traxel
- The Dutchman — Hermann Uhde
- Chorus and Orchestra of the Bayreuth Festival, conducted by Hans Knappertsbusch
Publishers
℗ & © 2012 ZYX Music GmbH & Co. KG, Merenberg, Germany. Made in the E.E.C.
Collect historic Bayreuth recordings? A short review helps other Wagnerians find this one.
