One of the Best
This recording stems from the 1951 Bayreuth Festival, the first after WWII. Many of us became familiar with it from the Seraphim LPs in the 1960s. The sound is mono and it was recorded in live performances, so you get audience and stage noises but the sound quality is fine. "Live" is the key and the cast is superb. As an interpretation it is also superior to Karajan's c 1970 Dresden recording, where everything is too smoothed out, the end of Act II being a case in point. In 1951 you have a riot, as Wagner, intended, with the night watchman's quavery reappearance after the disappearance of the rioters, being particularly funny - in 1970 the riot was replaced by a gentile gathering of mildly disagreeing parties and you have to wonder what the watchman is frightened of. I haven't done an A/B comparison with the latest EMI reissue but this, at a fraction of the price, is worth grabbing.
