[ Naxos / CD ]
Release Date: Friday 20 June 2008
This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.
"Leif Segerstam and the Royal Swedish Opera have put together a beautifully executed program that will be equally enjoyable for either the novice or the seasoned Wagnerian."
James Wintle, MusicWeb, 29 March 2005
"Putting together a CD of excerpts from the operas of Richard Wagner is tricky at best. Finding an excerpt of both appropriate length and consistent dramatic interest is a particular problem since in Wagner's later operas there is rarely a cadence that lends itself to being "the end" of an excerpt; thus the need for a nearly twenty-four minute excerpt of Parsifal. Also, there are many instances when the tonal framework of a scene is not in sync with the dramatic action of the opera. Those listeners who have heard of Wagner's philosophical concept of opera as a "total art work" may wonder whether or not a CD of excerpts from Wagner's Music Dramas is not a decidedly "un-Wagnerian" concept. To those devoted Wagnerites I would say, do not despair, Leif Segerstam and the Royal Swedish Opera have put together a beautifully executed program that will be equally enjoyable for either the novice or the seasoned Wagnerian."
James Wintle, MusicWeb, 29 March 2005
The Mastersingers of Nuremberg, Act III: Finale (excerpts)
The Flying Dutchman, Act III: Chorus of Norwegian Sailors and Girls
Tannhauser, Act II Scene 4: The Guests' Procession into the Hall of Song in the Wartburg
Lohengrin, Act II Scene 4: The Bridal Procession
Rienzi, Act II: Chorus of the Messengers of Peace
Parsifal, Act I: The Journey to Montsalvat (The Castle of the Guardians of the Grail)