# Final Contest:The Ring - Dawn Duet: Traubel/Melchior, Leider/ Soot, Flagstad/ Melchior, Varnay/ Windgassen,Hunter/ Remedios



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

You have hopefully listened over the past week and now can vote and further comment on your choices. Thanks to Woodduck on getting people started commenting last week. I wasn't sure how best to do this.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

The only negative comments I've read all week were for Soot and compared to the others I agree. Melchoir is of course the strongest Siegfried. The women all in their own way are truly wonderful. I would bet my retirement we will never have new recordings of this as good as this collection of wonders. Hunter is less heroic but comes off as a young woman in love and to me her voice is so beautiful at this time early in her career plus her tenor is quite wonderful as well. Hunter to me has the best high C. I like her C even better than Nilsson. Nilsson of course is great in this scene but her tenors were not on the same level. I think Woodduck is correct that overall the best recording is likely the Traubel/ Melchoir one but I am going to vote for the one that has gotten the most airplay with me and works me most up into a lather:Varnay/ Windgassen. I must also mention I LOVE the video of Gwynneth Jones and her handsome leg showing Siegfried from Bayreuth, but Jones must be seen like his legs to complete the experience so I didn't put her in this contest.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Well, Flagstad plus Melchior in San Francisco ! Irresistible!


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Not really my field, though I do like this duet. Through the dim recording, and despite the fast speed, Leider emerges as my favourite Brünnhilde, but I didn't much like Soot. Traubel didn't really do it for me. She sounded a bit staid and her final top C was ghastly. I don't really like Varnay's habit of starting a note from below and sliding up to it and Windgassen, though much preferable to Soot isn't exactly to my taste either.

I really liked the Hunter/Remedios recording. Both voices strike me as very beautiful, and of course they have the advantage of much better sound, with the orchestral contribution under Mackerras being superb. However I'm still granting the palm to Flagstad and Melchior. Flagstad would be my second favourite Brünnhilde after Leider and Melchior is so far ahead of the competition that it's easy to make them first choice.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

^^I will vote for Hunter/Remedios just because!


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Melch*oir* is of course the strongest Siegfried. The women all in their own way are truly wonderful. I think Woodduck is correct that overall the best recording is likely the Traubel/ Melch*oir* one but I am going to vote for the one that has gotten the most airplay with me and works me most up into a lather:Varnay/ Windgassen.











Why do you keep spelling his name as MelchOIR? I know he was a singer with the power of a choir, but is this deliberate?


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

hammeredklavier said:


> Why do you keep spelling his name as MelchOIR? I know he was a singer with the power of a choir, but is this deliberate?


Because I can create hundreds of operatic contests but I CANNOT spell operatic names. I've always done it and it will likely continue in the future. It is a failing of mine. There is no spellcheck for names. Sorry. If you catch it early enough you can nicely ask me to change it and I will and have done so many times. I am from Mississippi. All our names were spelled Jones, Rogers and Patterson.


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## 89Koechel (Nov 25, 2017)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Because I can create hundreds of operatic contests but I CANNOT spell operatic names. Don't play if it bothers you. I've always done it and it will likely continue in the future. It is a failing of mine. There is no spellcheck for names. Sorry. If you catch it early enough you can nicely ask me to change it and I will and have done so many times. I am from Mississippi. All our names were spelled Jones, Rogers and Patterson.


(" ... all our names ... spelled Jones, Rogers and Patterson."). OK, no problem, but don't forget bluesmen - Charlie Patton, Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Johnson, etc. ANYhoo, I'll vote for Melchior/Traubel, and the St. Louis lady/soprano is a TRUE, vocal rival to the great Norwegian ... IMO.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

89Koechel said:


> (" ... all our names ... spelled Jones, Rogers and Patterson."). OK, no problem, but don't forget bluesmen - Charlie Patton, Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Johnson, etc. ANYhoo, I'll vote for Melchior/Traubel, and the St. Louis lady/soprano is a TRUE, vocal rival to the great Norwegian ... IMO.


It took my Northwest friend Ellen I have a music fest driving every week with to acquaint me with Mississippi John Hurt and Robert Johnson. I see I am not the only person with a wide musical palate. We listened to some Mississippi Delta blues today!


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