Wagner: Die Walküre

01/06/2006
Hugh Canning
International Record Review (UK)

Dame Nellie might be surprised - and perhaps amused - to see a complete recording of Wagner's Ring on a label bearing her name, but she surely would have been proud that her country would one day be able to cast the great Tetralogy almost entirely from native Australian singers. This live Walküre was recorded over three Cycles in Adelaide late in 2004. I attended the first in November of that year - and, as a souvenir of an historic Australian event (the first home-generated staging of the Cycle on the continent), it will be of primary interest to Australian Wagnerians and those visitors who might want a memento of the performances.

For state-of-the-art sound buffs, it will also be the first audio Ring to be recorded expressly for the surround-sound SACD format ...

... this Walküre has some remarkable moments, not least the marvellous playing of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra ...

Lisa Gasteen, an appealing Brünnhilde in the theatre ... does some lovely things here, particularly in the 'Todesverkündigung' and the final pleas to Wotan ... Stuart Skelton's Siegmund sports a youthful-heroic tenor, reminiscent in timbre, if not in power, of James King's memorable portrayal on the live Böhm Ring from Bayreuth and Solti's studio recording ... Deborah Riedel's gleaming soprano ... she is a musical singer ...

Elizabeth Campbell's shrewish-sounding Fricka compares well with Ann Howard's on the Goodall set and even Annelises Burmeister's for Böhm ... The Valkyries ... among whom the plush contralto voice of Liane Keegan ... stands out ...