Strauss - Der Rosenkavalier - Ludwig, Popp, Jones, Domingo - Bernstein 19713CDs - ADD - Digital Remastered
Sony 1990
Performer: Dame Gwyneth Jones, Placido Domingo, Christa Ludwig, Lucia Popp, Walter Berry
Conductor: Leonard Bernstein
Orchestra/Ensemble: Vienna State Opera Chorus, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
The performance is plenty muscular yet never far from an intense awareness of the dream's fragility--Bernstein captures so well Strauss' and Hofmannsthal's intuition that the turn-of-the-century Viennese world they adored was already in its death throes. The assembled cast--notably Christa Ludwig's Marschallin--obviously share Bernstein's vision, because they sing like a dream. And the final duet of Gwyneth Jones' Octavian and Lucia Popp's Sophie? You just have to hear it. Hardened hearts may be able to resist its charms, but I invariably find myself deeply moved. --Amazon customer
