COMPOSERS: Richard Strauss
LABELS: Koch Schwann
WORKS: Die Frau ohne Schatten (excerpts); Daphne; Die ägyptische Helena
PERFORMER: Soloists, Vienna State Opera Orchestra & Chorus/Karl Böhm, Rudolf Moralt, Clemens Krauss
CATALOGUE NO: 3-1455-2 ADD mono
A November 1943 performance of Richard Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten did actually coincide with a difficult period in its composer’s career. At the Vienna State Opera, Torsten Ralf portrayed an arrestingly masculine Emperor and Hilde Konetzni a commanding Empress, with a fine supporting cast under Karl Böhm. Koch’s rather dimly recorded set also has excerpts from Die ägyptische Helena (1933) and a very early performance of Daphne (1942).