COMPOSERS: Beethoven
LABELS: Sony
WORKS: Fidelio
PERFORMER: Birgit Nilsson, Jon Vickers, Hermann Uhde, Oskar Czerwenka, Laurel Hurley, Charles Anthony, Giorgio Tozzi; The Metropolitan Opera & Chorus/Karl Böhm
CATALOGUE NO: Sony 88697853092
There is much to recommend this performance of Beethoven’s Fidelio, recorded in clean mono sound. Karl Böhm was an immensely experienced conductor of this opera, and his account of the Leonore No. 3 Overture is thrilling. He takes most of the score at a good lick, though sometimes to the point of rushing. Jon Vickers, in one of his first Florestans, is in uneven voice, but committed. Birgit Nilsson makes an exciting Fidelio, and the rest of the cast are at least adequate, with the exception of Oskar Czerwenka’s rusty-voiced Rocco. Michael Tanner
