# Individual Recorded Performances that Don't get the Credit they Deserve



## BalloinMaschera (Apr 4, 2011)

With the vast canon of recorded opera, do you also sometimes find that, for some reason specific performers do not get the praise they deserve?

For example, while Kubelik's Decca recoding of Nicola's "Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor" is not my favorite of the work ( that prize must go to Heger on EMI) 
Claes-Håkan Ahnsjö's Fenton on the Kubelik, is to my ears exceptional. He sings in turn gracefully and intensely, with a free top, and ardently in the love duet- absolutely flawless. His competition on other recordings includes the likes of Peter Schreier, Anton Dermota, and even Fritz Wunderlich. However, it is Ahnsjö's rendition that comes out on top- I honestly think it is among the best recorded performances of any tenor role in a German opera (non Wagnerian opera), including the many Taminos, Florestans and Maxs ...yet Ahnsjö is hardly mentioned (if at all) in any of the reviews I have read of the Decca recording

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=57187

Do you treasure any particular recorded performances that have impressed you and blown you away, but have seemingly not been noticed by others? Do tell!


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

I'm not very knowledgeable in the matter of opera audio recordings, since the overwhelming majority of my collection is made of visual media (like 95%). So, I'll reply from the standpoint of opera DVD - I got one of these days a DVD of Rossini's Ermione with Anna Caterina Antonacci - Andrew Davis conducting the London Philharmonic - that I found so good that I was amazed at how obscure this work is, and how unknown this DVD is.


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## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

Alison Hagley's is a name I rarely see mentioned, but for me she is the definitive Susanna. She has a lovely light lyric voice, is cute as a button, and a fine actress, but she never quite seemed to break through to stardom. Maybe the grind of the opera lifestyle got to her and she retired early?
Her exaggerated "faint" always makes me laugh:


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

rgz said:


> Alison Hagley's is a name I rarely see mentioned, but for me she is the definitive Susanna. She has a lovely light lyric voice, is cute as a button, and a fine actress, but she never quite seemed to break through to stardom. Maybe the grind of the opera lifestyle got to her and she retired early?
> Her exaggerated "faint" always makes me laugh:


I couldn't agree more. In one of our earlier threads I also voted for her as best Susanna, and this production as best Figaro. It's such a shame that she didn't stick around for long!


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## dieter (Feb 26, 2016)

Kurt Sanderling's Tchaikovsky, Borodin and Shostakovich. ( His Russian Marriage of Figaro is also sensational, as are his Bach Keyboard Concerti with Hans Pischner.)


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

I think that John Alexander's Pollione in the first Bonynge/Sutherland NORMA recording (1964) is much better than some reviewers have made it out to be.


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