Wagner: Das Rheingold (2006)

by Andrew Brunsdon (vocals), Andrew Collis (vocals), Christopher Doig (vocals), David Hibbard (vocals), Donna-Maree Dunlop (vocals), Elizabeth Campbell (vocals), John Brocheler (vocals), John Wegner (vocals), Kate Ladner (vocals), Liane Keegan (vocals)

Das Rheingold is the second installment (after Die Walküre) of Der Ring des Nibelungen, produced by the Australian label Melba and conducted by Asher Fisch. Such an ambitious endeavor might reasonably be greeted with skepticism -- there is no lack of recordings of the Ring, some of them extraordinarily fine, and the odds of a company with as little international recognition as the Adelaide-based State Opera of South Australia producing a competitive and distinctive version seem slim. This recording of Das Rheingold, though, ... Read More

Das Rheingold is the second installment (after Die Walküre) of Der Ring des Nibelungen, produced by the Australian label Melba and conducted by Asher Fisch. Such an ambitious endeavor might reasonably be greeted with skepticism -- there is no lack of recordings of the Ring, some of them extraordinarily fine, and the odds of a company with as little international recognition as the Adelaide-based State Opera of South Australia producing a competitive and distinctive version seem slim. This recording of Das Rheingold, though, is entirely successful, and while it may not displace the Solti or Boulez or Levine versions, it deserves a place beside them -- this is one of the most viscerally propulsive Rheingolds on disc. A large part of the credit goes to Fisch and the exemplary playing of the Adelaide Symphony. The orchestra has a gorgeous, warm sound, and is capable of all the sonic variety that Wagner demands. Fisch leads a dramatically taut reading that at the same time has the rhythmic elasticity to... Read Less