“SIEGFRIED : Wagner
Original Air Date: 01/30/1937
Cast: Bodanzky; Melchior, Flagstad, Schorr, Thorborg, Laufkötter, Habich
Media: MOD Audio SID.17020421 Tags: Archive; 2017, Wagner
Melchior is simply in a class by himself because no one has a voice like his. The supporting cast are of major stature. This also appears in the Sony Wagner CD box from the Met.
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
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.
by Andrew Rose May 26, 2017”