“DIE WALKURE : Wagner
Original Air Date: 03/01/1969
Cast: von Karajan; Nilsson, Adam, Crespin, Vickers, Veasey, Talvela
Media: MOD Audio SID.18050211 Tags: Archive; 2018, Nilsson, Wagner
To my knowledge this is the only broadcast opera performance (not counting galas) in which both Nilsson and Crespin appear together. This is Crespin’s only broadcast Sieglinde from the Met. It is also Karajan’s final Met performance (he had done the Rheingold broadcast a week earlier (also on MOoD); it is also Josephine Veasey’s Met farewell.
I’m rather sorry that Stewart did not get this broadcast, but he had the first year’s with Nilsson, Rysanek, Vickers,and Ludwig. Adam is experienced (he is in Bohm’s Bayreuth Ring of the same period, but his tone is not so agreeable to me.) This 1969 broadcast is Talvela’s only broadcast Hunding.
The quality of the performance is one of the best postwar Walkures.
2/10/12 -This is one of von Karajan’s two Met broadcasts (the other is Rheingold), and Crespin’s only Sieglinde broadcast. The performance is also on MetPlayer. I’m not a big fan of Adam, but this is still powerhouse casting. Karajan’s conducting is in many ways closer to his early Bayreuth conducting than his 60s studio efforts.”