# DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN - Favorite Recordings



## NightHawk (Nov 3, 2011)

I have Solti's (sadly, with Domingo as the Emperor), and Swallisch's with Studer/Kollo et al. Are there other recordings that vie with or surpass these? Thanks!


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

I'm partial to Karl Bohm's 1977 recording.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

NightHawk said:


> I have Solti's (sadly, with Domingo as the Emperor), and Swallisch's with Studer/Kollo et al. Are there other recordings that vie with or surpass these? Thanks!


I have both of these but confess I am yet to listen to either in their entirety. This work doesn't do it for me.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

NightHawk said:


> I have Solti's (sadly, with Domingo as the Emperor), and Swallisch's with Studer/Kollo et al. Are there other recordings that vie with or surpass these? Thanks!


I like the Solti set for Behrens, and I do like Domingo (whether or not is fits the role of Emperor I don't know).


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

No (the Solti is the best).

The Sawallisch is weak (as are most of the others I've heard). The best DVD choice is also Solti's, he somehow had an affinity with Strauss and Mozart.

This is worth listening to:









N.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Actually this one is pretty good. Full cast list *here*. Several releases with different packaging.









EDIT: Regarding the following post, I checked times on Prestomusic.com:

Sawallisch: 3 hours 10 minutes
Solti: 3 hours 14 minutes
Bohm (above): 2 hours 50 minutes
Bohm 1955 (next post): 3 hours 16 minutes


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

NightHawk said:


> I have Solti's (sadly, with Domingo as the Emperor), and Sawallisch's with Studer/Kollo et al. Are there other recordings that vie with or surpass these? Thanks!


There are individual assumptions on other recordings that are essential (such as Rysanek's Kaiserin and King's Kaiser), but the Solti and Sawallisch recordings are the only ones that are uncut. The others are cut, some pretty heavily.

I've always like Bohm's first, early stereo recording on Decca:


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

The Conte said:


> No (the Solti is the best).
> 
> The Sawallisch is weak (as are most of the others I've heard). The best DVD choice is also Solti's, he somehow had an affinity with Strauss and Mozart.
> 
> ...


Wise words Conte.


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## gvn (Dec 14, 2019)

For me, this is one of the most myriad-minded of operas, which can be approached from many directions and (perhaps) points toward rather than fully attains what it's trying to achieve. Therefore I feel that any one recording can bring out only some of its aspects.

I enjoy the Solti and Sawallisch CD sets for their completeness, but I find in both a slightly antiseptic, studio-constructed quality. In both cases, I find myself revisiting the DVDs (Solti dir. Goetz Friedrich, Salzburg 1992; Sawallisch dir. Ennosuke Ichikawa, Nagoya 1992) more often than the CDs. Sawallisch's DVD has the more interesting staging, but his Empress (Luana De Vol) has a conspicuous vibrato that may bother some listeners.

On CD, for more of the lifeblood and spirit of the work, I personally would turn to Keilberth and Böhm. On Keilberth's set I particularly prize Fischer-Dieskau's Barak; I don't say that it's the only, or even the "best," way to play the role, but it's one of those characterizations that--well, let me put it this way: no one who hasn't heard it can appreciate what can be done with the role.

I go to Böhm's recordings particularly for the sense of real ensemble drama played by a real team, and strangely enough I find this just as much in his 1955 Decca studio set as in his three famous live recordings (1966, with King, Rysanek, Berry, Ludwig, Dalis; 1974, with King, Rysanek, Berry, Ludwig, Hesse; 1977, with King, Rysanek, Berry, Nilsson, Hesse). I would despair of choosing between those three. The 1966 performance has, overall, the greatest freshness & vibrancy of voice, but some of the performances have perceptibly matured by 1974, and 1977 has decidedly the best sound quality (though the introduction of Nilsson may threaten to destabilize a little the beautifully balanced team). I listen to all three about equally. I can't comment on Böhm's first two "complete" recordings (1953 and 1955 Orfeo) or his 1975 recording with Schröder-Feinen.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I started a thread on this a couple of years ago here

I doubt the situation has changed much since then. I note that in my opening statement I was asking for recommendations for a good studio recording. I still haven't got one and I think I can probably live without it.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Of course there is this one with a very special cast though it is heavily cut.


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## vincula (Jun 23, 2020)

DavidA said:


> View attachment 130263
> 
> 
> Of course there is this one with a very special cast though it is heavily cut.


This one went unnoticed. Must go to the library again and do a little research. Thanks for the recommendation.

I like this work, especially the parts written for the orchestra surprise me every time. Rich, complex and incredible demanding. They must be sweating their t¨¨¨s off down there. Fasten your seatbelts :trp:!

Regards,

Vincula


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## Barelytenor (Nov 19, 2011)

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Staatskapelle Dresden 1996 CD Frosch recording conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli. Deborah Voigt is in top pre-weight-loss (and _way_ pre-little-black-dress) form as The Empress, opposite Ben Heppner as The Emperor and with Hanna Schwarz as the Nurse, and Franz Grundheber and Sabine Hass as the Dyer and his wife. Heppner is creditable in the role, and the Dresden orchestra sounds fantastic, with good casting in the smaller roles. That said, I think Debbie Voigt sounded even better in the same role (and same girth) four years later at Covent Garden with Christian Thielemann conducting and opposite Johan Botha, who sounded better in the part.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I've listened to two hours of the Solti on YouTube this evening. There are some hard driven moments but plenty of beautiful music too. I'm interested in listening to some of Bohm's performances as well. But my local record store has a nice copy of the Solti for ten dollars and I'm going buy it tomorrow before it's gone.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

starthrower said:


> I've listened to two hours of the Solti on YouTube this evening. There are some hard driven moments but plenty of beautiful music too. I'm interested in listening to some of Bohm's performances as well. But my local record store has a nice copy of the Solti for ten dollars and I'm going buy it tomorrow before it's gone.


Get it, you won't be disappointed!

I don't know the Bohm performances well and perhaps you should choose based on which cast you prefer. I can thoroughly recommend the 1966 Met one, it's a fantastic all round cast.

N.


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## betterthanfine (Oct 17, 2017)

Has anyone heard the recently released Thielemann live recording? I've read good things about it.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

betterthanfine said:


> Has anyone hear the recently released Thielemann live recording? I've read good things about it.
> 
> View attachment 149166


Ooooh, Nylund! And Stemme! Nice. Going to have to give this opera a listen today.


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## mparta (Sep 29, 2020)

Barelytenor said:


> I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Staatskapelle Dresden 1996 CD Frosch recording conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli. Deborah Voigt is in top pre-weight-loss (and _way_ pre-little-black-dress) form as The Empress, opposite Ben Heppner as The Emperor and with Hanna Schwarz as the Nurse, and Franz Grundheber and Sabine Hass as the Dyer and his wife. Heppner is creditable in the role, and the Dresden orchestra sounds fantastic, with good casting in the smaller roles. That said, I think Debbie Voigt sounded even better in the same role (and same girth) four years later at Covent Garden with Christian Thielemann conducting and opposite Johan Botha, who sounded better in the part.


I went to the Met to hear this twice for Deborah Voigt. She was in magnificent voice then, one of the best performances of anything I've ever heard in the theater. Same era when she did an Egyptian Helen with Botstein in concert, I think, not as impressive.

I think this opera has a lot of glorious music, enough to sustain its weight and length, which is really saying something. However, the book is just drivel, I have no idea what they could have been thinking. Oh well, I guess I do, but it still strikes me as the silliest nonsense, short of Wagner-- well, that's no good either. Anyway, the baby thing and the esthetic or political drive that let that become an opera, oh my, only a civilization on the edge of collapse could have come up with this. Let's see, again, oh yea, they were on the edge of collapse. The only thing I've said that makes sense.

Individual performances make the Solti preferable for me, Varady very fine, Domingo sounds pretty good, the occasional forcing the voice up in a way that to my ear makes it sharp, don't like that. But the killer is Jose Van Dam, the beauty of his singing as Barak is nonpareil, which is often the case with Van Dam. He gets great music and he just slays it. Fischer-Dieskau, half the voice at best.

There are two versions I haven't heard, it's hard to know when to splurge on something so big. But Thieleman's Vienna production in the last couple of years got great musical reviews (not the production). And there's something from Frankfurt, the Museum orchestra (funny name). They've been doing a Strauss series and it is a well-reviewed performance. I like the Sinopoli as well. The older recordings, HvK or Bohm, I had years ago, I feel no urgency to go back but they'd probably do what I said about Solti above, have individual performances that would be keepers.

but as a mythology it's not quite at the level of Tom and Jerry.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

starthrower said:


> I've listened to two hours of the Solti on YouTube this evening. There are some hard driven moments but plenty of beautiful music too. I'm interested in listening to some of Bohm's performances as well. But my local record store has a nice copy of the Solti for ten dollars and I'm going buy it tomorrow before it's gone.


Keep in mind that all of the Böhm recordings are cut to some degree (I believe that the Solti and Sawallisch recordings are the only complete commercial issues). IIRC, the first Böhm recording, from 1955, has the fewest cuts.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I bought the Solti at the record store today. The same person traded in Mehta's Turandot, and Karajan's Tristan all in mint shape so I got all three.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I bought the Solit and Gergiev DVDs of this opera a few years ago. Watched the Solti back then and my checklist shows I gave it a 6 out of 10 rating. I just watched the Gergiev set and really liked it, probably a 9 out of 10, maybe even 10 out of 10.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Awakening Scene with Marton:I love this bit. Eva Marton at her vocal peak blowing you away with an astonishing Db along with glorious, full throated splendor in general. She often had trouble with high C, but was in rare form for this recording. I have played this Awakening Scene to death. LOVE IT>


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Got the Sawallisch DVD set but it had a bad disk so I could not watch Act III. Got my money back.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Anybody have this one?


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