Credits:

Donizetti / Varviso, Silvio

Description:

The 100th anniversary of the birth of Birgit Nilsson, one of the most famous Wagner sopranos of the 20th century. Wintgassen, who had been on stage since 1951, when the Bayreuth Festival resumed after a brief interruption due to the war, and Nilsson, who appeared in 1954, first met in 1957 in Bayreuth's "Tristan". Although this performance is already widely known, the 1957 performance was not a great success, as Sawallisch, who made his Bayreuth debut in this performance, conducted somewhat awkwardly, and the two singers were not yet at the level of proficiency. However, in the 1958 performance, the combination of the strong voices of Wintgassen and Nilsson and the clean orchestral sound of Sawallisch's innovative interpretation (the tempo was considered "too fast" in the 1957 performance), is truly "the best of both worlds. After this year, Sawallisch appeared at Bayreuth until 1962, where he established his reputation by conducting "The Dutchman," "Tannhäuser," and "Lohengrin.However, he left Bayreuth after a conflict with general director Wieland Wagner over the casting of his next production, "Die Meistersinger. The people surrounding the two main characters are also performed by excellent singers. The familiar faces from Wagner's works, including Grindl as King Marke, Hoffmann as Brangäne, Sedean, who, like Nilsson, was from Sweden, and Uhl, who played Tristan with Nilsson two years later, in 1960. Please enjoy these masterful performances that symbolize the "Golden Age of Bayreuth" from the 1950s to the 1960s. Naxos Japan