Richard Wagner - Der fliegende Holländer - London, Tozzi - Dorati, Covent Garden 19622CD - ADD - 144.58min.
Decca release 1990
Performer: George London, Giorgio Tozzi, Rosalind Elias, Karl Liebl, Leonie Rysanek, et al.
Orchestra: Royal Opera House Chorus and Orchestra Covent Garden
Conductor: Antal Dorati
George London is commanding in the title-role, his tone grainy but never dry, his phrasing eloquent, his characterization complete. Despite the recording's modish, early-1960s tendency to place him in the middle distance, London is still able to convey all the necessary weight and passion... Rysanek's smoky, full-bodied tone may make her an improbably mature-sounding Senta, but, like London, she is a strong asset... The remaining solo singers are generally excellent, too. In an extensive survey of the current recordings of the opera (10/72) Deryck Cooke praised ''the intimate tenderness'' of Karl Liebl's Erik: but Liebl also conveys Erik's despair without excessive melodrama. Giorgio Tozzi is not the most sonorous or sinister Daland ever heard on disc, but he provides a good foil to the charismatic London... [T]he finely characterized singing of London and Rysanek remains memorable.-- Arnold Whittall, Gramophone [8/1990, reviewing Decca 417319]
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