Bayerischer Staatsopernchor & Orch, Keilberth - Richard Strauss: Die Frau Ohne Schatten

Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman without a Shadow), which Richard Strauss composed with his long-time collaborator, the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal, received an unenthusiastic premiere in Vienna on 10 October 1919, Hofmannsthal's complicated and heavily symbolic libretto was cited as one of the problems. However, it is now a standard part of the operatic repertoire, and Keilberth�s recording was made on November/December 1963 at the re-opening of the National Theatre in Munich, boasting a stellar cast which included Hertha T�pper, Jess Thomas, Martha M�dl and Hans Hotter, as well as Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Inge Borkh as the Dyer and his wife. �Keilberth has many good moments, particularly in the lyrical and the quieter parts of the work. [�] fine, well-toned singing [from Jess Thomas] ... Ingrid Bjoner gives a lovely performance of her difficult part, bringing out the essential lovableness, pathos and humility of the character and rising to all Strauss�s demands [�] Inge Borkh is in magnificent voice � extraordinary brilliance of tone, and her overall conception, in all its changing moods, could not be bettered� Gramophone, August 1964The Performers:The Emperor � Jess Thomas The Empress � Ingrid BjonerThe Nurse � Martha M�dlThe Spirit-Messenger � Hans HotterA Guardian of the Threshold of the Temple � Ingeborg HallsteinApparition of a Young Man � Georg PaskudaThe Voice of the Falcon � Gerda SommerschuhA Voice from Above � Hertha TopperBarak, The Dyer � Dietrich Fischer-DieskauHis Wife � Inge Borkh