# Fantasy Ring Recording Thread



## jflatter (Mar 31, 2010)

Right for those lovers of the Ring. If you were given the chance to do a recording with a cast from the ages who would you pick. I think I would limit this to all characters who have stand out and are not just part of an ensemble or group. For example I would limit the Valkyries to just Brunnhilde and Waltraute. I would also leave the Rhinemaidens and Norns out of it. Anyone who disagrees then let me know but otherwise I think it gets too complicated. Everyone else I will put in thanks to my memory and Wikipedia. We shall also choose conducters.

Also it may even be fun to think of current singers who haven't yet done a particular role but think their voice would fit that role.

The list then is:

Wotan
Fricka
Freia
Donner
Froh
Erda
Alberich
Mime
Loge
Siegmund
Sieglinde
Siegfried
Brunnhilde
Waltraute
Fasolt
Fafner
Hunding
Hagen
Gunther
Gutrune
Woodbird

The Conductor.


Happy Choosing


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Nice game but I'm afraid my knowledge of Wagnerian singers, especially those from the past, is not good enough to participate. Chi_townPhilly is the biggest Wagner expert we have here, I hope he participates and gives us a nice list.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

My Brunnhilde of the moment is Anna Russell. All the rest are secondary, mostly because anybody would be so much better but also because there's no way anyone could make it good.


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## emiellucifuge (May 26, 2009)

I dont know about singers but I would almost definitely have Pierre Audi do the direction/staging


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## Edward Elgar (Mar 22, 2006)

Conductor - Claudio Abbado
Orchestra - Lucerne Festival Orchestra

I don't know anything about singers. Who are the best at the moment? I'd pick them.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

What about Nina Stemme for Brunnhilde? She is cute and sings well.


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

jflatter said:


> Right for those lovers of the Ring. If you were given the chance to do a recording with a cast from the ages who would you pick.


:deep breath:
Here goes!
Wotan *Friedrich Schorr*
Fricka *Kirstin Flagstad* [I'd also like her for Brünnhilde, too- but I can only put 'er in one place.]
Freia *Anja Silja*
Donner *Eberhard Wächter*
Froh *Sándor Kónya*
Erda *Maria von Ilovsay*
Alberich *Gustav Neidlinger*
Mime *Paul Kuen*
Loge *Set Svanholm*
Siegmund *Jon Vickers*
Sieglinde *Jessye Norman* (Well, the thread DID say _recording_.)
Siegfried *Lauritz Melchior*
Brunnhilde *Astrid Varnay*
Waltraute *Christa Ludwig*
Fasolt *Theo Adam*
Fafner *Matti Salminen*
Hunding *Josef Greindl*
Hagen *Gottlob Frick*
Gunther *Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau*
Gutrune *Regina Resnik*
Woodbird *Joan Sutherland*

The Conductor. *Bruno Walter* conducting the *Chicago Symphony Orchestra*- 
recorded at _Symphony Hall_, *Boston* (why dream small?!)


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## jflatter (Mar 31, 2010)

*The Cast*

Firstly thanks to Chi_Town Philly for spotting my deliberate mistake!

Right I have given some thought to this and hear is my list:

Wotan- Hans Hotter (5 years ago it would have been George London but then I heard the Keilberth Ring)

Fricka-Christa Ludwig (the best thing about the Solti recording of Die Walkure)

Freia-Claire Watson (Great interpreation in Solti's Ring)

Erda-Marga Hoffgen (For her role in the Solti Siegfried, Jane Henschel is very good in this role too)

Donner-Eberhard Wachter (Luxury casting for the Solti Rheingold)

Froh-Fritz Wunderlich (This is my fun bit of casting as I don't think he ever done this role) Will Hartmann impressed me in the real world though.

Alberich-Gustav Neidlinger (It was between him and Gunter von Kannen)

Mime-Gerhard Stolze (tough choice between him and Heinz Zednik which leads onto my next choice)

Loge-Heinz Zednik (great portrayal in the Boulez Ring)

Siegmund- Jon Vickers (This was my toughest choice between him and Ramon Vinay but Vickers in my view was the best thing about the Karajan Ring)

Sieglinde-Waltraud Meier (Personal memories of her electrifying perfomance at the Proms in this role make me choose her. Others such as Regine Crespin would have been very good as well)

Siegfried-Wolfgang Windgassen (this is probably a controversial choice but anyone who has the Keilberth and Solti Rings know he was a much better singer during his younger Keilberth era. I am prepared to be shot down in flames on this one )

Brunnhilde-Astrid Varnay (I could have chosen Nilsson but Varnay's final scenes in Gotterdammerung are so moving they could bring me to tears. The more human Brunnhilde.)

Waltraute-Mihoko Fujimura (Again personal memories of her role at the Royal Opera House lead me to choose her. Although could have been Ludwig again.)

Fasolt-John Tomlinson (What Ring would be complete without Sir John T)

Fafner-Stephan Milling (A great underrated bass)

Hunding-Matti Salminen (Again you cannot fail to include Matti and his role in the Boulez Die Walkure is great)

Hagen-Gottlob Frick (My favourite thing about Solti's Gotterdammerung. Chilling voice and Act 2 is very special)

Gunther-Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Tricky one this I think. A weedy role. Fischer-Dieskau gets the nod only because this is a fantasy recording. Alan Held does it well dramatically)

Gutrune- Gundula Janowitz (I liked her portrayal in the Karajan Ring)

The Woodbird-Who else but Joan Sutherland.

I am going to choose two conducters one who has conducted the Ring and that would be Joseph Keilberth and one who to my knowledge hasn't conducted it but I would like to hear him do it and that it is Semyon Bychkov.

Let me know what you think and please let me know if I have missed anyone out.


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## Bill H. (Dec 23, 2010)

Chi_townPhilly said:


> :deep breath:
> Here goes!
> Wotan *Friedrich Schorr*
> Fricka *Kirstin Flagstad* [I'd also like her for Brünnhilde, too- but I can only put 'er in one place.]
> ...


I'd agree with most of those! Still prefer Lotte Lehmann for Sieglinde best (especially if you're having Bruno Walter as the conductor), though I wonder how Modl would have sounded in that role. Windgassen an alternate for Siegmund (or Siegfried, too).

Maybe Grummer for Freia? Or Schwartzkopf? Or maybe they'd be great Valkyries/Rheinmaidens.....

Don't know Schorr well enough, though I've read many great things about him. Obviously would think of Hotter for alternate Wotan.

Walter was a much undervalued operatic conductor IMO. Wish there were more recordings by him! Ultimately though I'd still pick Furtwangler as the conductor, with Berlin or Vienna Phils. Bayreuth still the acoustic setting of my choice, much as I love Symphony Hall!


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## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

and Birgit Nilsson?

Martin


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

Chi_townPhilly said:


> Fricka *Kirstin Flagstad* [I'd also like her for Brünnhilde, too- but I can only put 'er in one place.]


Not to seem overly annoying (OK, maybe a little that as well), but it's *Kirsten* Flagstad. (I'm only correcting this because I am Norwegian, and thus, I feel I have a kind of national obligation to correct misspelled Norwegian names. Promise.)


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## Rangstrom (Sep 24, 2010)

To throw in a few:

Siegmund: Franz Völker (he did sing it a few times)
Sieglinde: Gré Brouwenstijn
Siegfried: Wolfgang Windgassen (Melchior is probably better, but Windgassen is the voice I hear)
Loge: Graham Clark (as much for his acting as anything)
Wotan: Schorr (youthful vigor)
Wanderer: Hotter (resignation)
Brunnhilde: Varnay
Gunther: Herman Uhde (his most famous role, I can't take it away from him)
Hagen: Gottlob Frick
Alberich: Neidlinger
Mime: Kuen
Hunding: Salminen (scary man)


Conductor: Furtwängler (to hear his performance in great sound) or Knappertsbusch (to hear him completely focused through the whole Ring/this is a fantasy Ring after all).


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## jflatter (Mar 31, 2010)

Could not disagree with any of that. 

I considered Graham Clark for Loge as well as Mime.


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

Almaviva said:


> What about Nina Stemme for Brunnhilde? She is cute and sings well.


If we were doing 'fantasy-casting' for a dream-DVD version of the _Ring_ in modern sound, 
this would be an excellent start!


myaskovsky2002 said:


> and Birgit Nilsson?


I can't say anything bad about Nilsson, as a singer or as a person. When the MET opera audiences were quizzed on this very topic, Nilsson was their choice. I just happen to like Varnay in this role just a slight little bit more... *And*, to return to the 'dream DVD' angle, Varnay in her prime would, I imagine, work VERY WELL on DVD. [Remember that when Wieland Wagner went over to the near-minimal sets of the 'New Bayreuth' style, he cited the stage-presence of Astrid Varnay as one of the reasons such stagings wound up working the way they did.]

As long as I'm on this topic, I suppose I should put in a very honorable mention for Frida Leider, too.

As with Nilsson, I don't want to give anything but praise for Wolfgang Windgassen, either. The world of Wagner-recording in the halcyon days of the 50s & early 60s would be a less rich place without his contributions. However, I have to discuss Melchior a little more, so that some perspective can be gained.

The position of *Lauritz Melchior* at the apex of the _Heldentenoren_ is one of the easiest things for which to document support in the entire world of _Classical Music_ (let alone opera) performance. It's obvious enough to be heard by tyros listening to old scratchy Parlophone shellac discs. It's a simpler and more obvious conclusion than arguing for the primacy of Heifetz on the violin, or Horowitz in the Romantic piano repertory. For most, simply to _hear_ him is to appreciate him. Those who have any kind of interest in this sort of repertoire are urged to do so, with my highest recommendation.


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## jflatter (Mar 31, 2010)

myaskovsky2002 said:


> and Birgit Nilsson?
> 
> Martin


I would agree with Chi_townPhilly on this. If Nilsson was around now whether you were casting a production or a recording you would do all you could to book her. She had a wonderful voice. Personally for me, Varnay just showed the more vulnerable side of Brunnhilde.


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## Sieglinde (Oct 25, 2009)

Dream dvd (going for both voices and looks for role):

Technical staff: WETA
Conductor: Ádám Fisher

Wotan René Pape
Fricka 
Freia
Donner
Froh
Erda 
Alberich Sven Byriel
Mime Heinz Zednik
Loge Christian Franz
Siegmund Jonas Kaufmann
Sieglinde Eva-Maria Westbroeck 
Siegfried 
Brunnhilde Nina Stemme
Waltraute
Fasolt Stephen Milling
Fafner Andrea Silvestrelli
Hunding Peter Rose
Hagen Eric Halfvarsson (my dream Hagen is Salminen but since he's supposed to be a few months older than Siegfried, it wouldn't work on a film)
Gunther Peter Coleman-Wright
Gutrune
Woodbird Natalie Dessay



Will try to fill all later... no idea, especially for Siegfried.


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## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

Ooh i wanna play too!!

Wotan - Hotter
Fricka - Christa Ludwig
Freia - Gwyneth Jones (great idea, right?)
Donner - George London (tell me that wouldn't be cool!)
Froh - Siegfried Jerusalem
Erda - Kerstin Thorborg
Alberich - Neidlinger
Mime - Heinz Zednik
Loge - Windgassen (he has to be a part of this right??)
Siegmund - Vickers
Sieglinde - Flagstad 
Siegfried - Melchior
Brunnhilde - Nilsson
Waltraute - Waltraud Meier
Fasolt - John Tomlinson
Fafner - Matti Salminen
Hunding - Gottlob Frick
Hagen - Ivar Andresen
Gunther - DFD
Gutrune - Astrid Varnay (had to fit her in)
Woodbird - Sutherland

Conductor - Furtwängler

That was a lot of fun


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