Posted by Richard Loeb Richard
on March 9, 2006, 17:44:10
68.44.133.170
I have been listening to selections from the new Opera D'oro issue of the
1953 Krauss Bayreuth Ring. This label's history regarding sound has been
extremely spotty but this time they come up with a winner. As far as I know
this Ring has had three incarnations on CD - a late 80s issue on the Laudis
label which was a transfer from Foyer LPs; a recent remastering on Archipel;
this latest remastering on Opera D'Oro.
The Archipel is immediately thrown out of court due to a botched up job on
the Rheingold Cds - some kind of fake stereo woth the voices on one side,
the orchestra on the other and fake reverberation and echo around the whole
thing. I understand the other operas are better but if the Rheingold is a
mess who cares????
The extremely hard to find Laudis CDs are very "alive", hissy but they have
a lot of impact.
The new Opera D'Oro has been remastered at a lower level than the Laudis
set, hiss is gone and there is a slightly covered quality that sounds very
much like the way these operas sound at Bayreuth - the sound is warm and
full. The Siegfried certainly sounds more like Bayreuth than the recently
issued Testament set from 1955.
So I'm glad I have both the Laudis and the new Opera D'Oro - I think I
slightly prefer the new issue due to the warmer sound. The set comes with
very interesting notes and gorgeous illustrations by John Martinez.
As for the performance - it is magnificent.
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