Word: catarina
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Wagner, Die Meistersinger: Baritone Norman Bailey, Tenor Rene Kollo, Soprano Hannelore Bode; Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna State Opera Chorus, Sir Georg Solti conducting (5 LPs, London). Baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Tenor Placido Domingo, Soprano Catarina Ligendza; Chorus and Orchestra of the German Opera, Berlin, Eugen Jochum conducting (5 LPs, Deutsche Grammophon). Here are two performances-one extraordinary, one merely excellent-of an operatic marvel that over the years has proved difficult to commit to disc. The Solti is the more spacious and relaxed of the two; because of London's typically distant engineering, it also has a more homogenized sound...
...York, Kubelik decamped for Munich to fulfill previously scheduled conducting commitments and kept in touch with New York largely via phone and Telex exchanges. In his absence, things began to come apart, beginning in January with a spectacularly unlucky production of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. Swedish Soprano Catarina Ligendza, scheduled for the first performances, canceled, citing illness. In turn, Tenor Jon Vickers, who is the best Tristan in the world right now, began to have second thoughts about making his Met debut in the role. Conductor Erich Leinsdorf apparently caught the pouts from him and nearly quit...
Whether Wagner is tolerable with anything less than great singing is an arguable proposition, but one thing is certain. The Met's Tristan almost closed for lack of any voices at all. First, Sweden's Catarina Ligendza canceled out as Isolde pleading illness. Nilsson was busy elsewhere. Then Tenor Jon Vickers, who seems to tremble before Wagner but may just possibly be the Tristan everyone at the Met (including Nilsson) has been waiting for, begged out of his first two performances-he wanted more time. Not to be outdone, Conductor Erich Leinsdorf threatened to resign, complaining that...