"This writer fails to recall an occasion when they sang the final duet of the opera in such fashion, with such wealth of tone and heroic passion ... It was the lyrical flight of eagles" - New York Times, 1937
We are very fortunate that this broadcast of Siegfried survives as it preserves a golden age of Wagnerian singing at New York in the 1930s.Melchior had learned the role under the composer’s son, Siegfried, and widow, Cosima, at Bayreuth in the 1920s. Quite simply, no other tenor has been able to sing Siegfried like this - how the role was meant to be sung.
Two other cast members stand out. Friedrich Schorr was the leading interpreter of Wotan / Wanderer in the inter-war years. Norwegian soprano Kirsten Flagstad as Brunnhilde was the dominant Wagnerian soprano at the Met between 1935 and 1941 and Melchior and Flagstad together were the hottest opera ticket in New York. Her voice is beautifully controlled, delivering golden tone with ease.
This is the only complete recording of Melchior in Siegfried, and it is the only recording of Melchior and Flagstad together in the opera. It has been painstakingly restored and remastered over the past 16 months by Andrew Rose for this new Pristine release.