VERDI: The Sicilian Vespers

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)

The Sicilian Vespers (complete recording, sung in German) (Archive Recording 1955)

With:
HILDE ZADEK - HANS HOPF
DIETRICH FISCHER-DIESKAU - GOTTLOB FRICK
Cologne Radio Choir
Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra
MARIO ROSSI - director

Further treasures have been recovered from the archives of West German Radio, Cologne: three historic opera recordings bring the fifties back to life as the golden age of opera. The 1955 recording of “Freischütz” conducted by Erich Kleiber can lay claim to the status of a reference standard. Joseph Keilberth once again proved himself as an opera conductor of the highest calibre in the “Ariadne” of 1954, and Mario Rossi elicited an intoxicating Italianità from the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1955. Worth of special mention among the soloists are Elisabeth Grümmer as the ideal type of Agathe, the 29-year old Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Montfort, Gottlob Frick as Procida, Hilde Zadek as a passionate Ariadne and finally Rita Streich in two of her most famous roles, as Ännchen in Freischütz and as a defi nitive Zerbinetta in “Ariadne on Naxos”.