King, Wunderlich, Guden- Strauss' "Daphne"

This was on my mind so I thought I'd post something from it. James King, Fritz Wunderlich and Hilda Guden sing an excerpt near the end of Richard Strauss' one act opera "Daphne." This is a live performance from 1964 with Karl Bohm conducting, Wiener Staatsopernorchester.

"Zu dir nun, Knabe! - Jeden heiligen Morgen, etc"

I've never been a huge Strauss fan, a lot of his music just sounds a bit "busy" and cacophonous to me (though some of it is beautiful) but I generally prefer the more structured melodies of some other composers. Nevertheless you can hardly go wrong with a cast like this! ;-D

Category:

Music

Tags:

• richard
• strauss
• daphne
• fritz
• wunderlich
• hilda
• guden
• gueden
• james
• king
• tenor
• yt:quality=high

[montestone]

MEIN GOTT King is terrific in this!

[ShawDAMAN]

He was a wonderful tenor.

[babydrane]

Oh, this is just beautiful! Strauss and Wagner are not the pick up and play type and you definitely have to listen to their operas more than three times to like it. You also need to understand what is happening dramatically...neither the orchestration nor the vocal score will make sense otherwise. My suggestion...wait until everyone's left the house, pump up the volume and become immersed for two or three hours. You won't regret it.

[ShawDAMAN]

Thanks for the suggestion. You are right, I know. ;-)

[Ivanhoe2]

Most enjoyable and thanks very much for posting it. Best wishes!

[ShawDAMAN]

Thanks to you to :)

[a9z8a743]

Sometimes it better to start out with Strauss with bits and pieces.  Wagner on the other hand, take it act by act.

[rockgor]

This opera isn't staged very often. Probably difficult to show the

soprano turning into a tree.

Deutsche Grammophon has this performance on CDs. I read that

Strauss dedicated the opera to Karl Bohm.

Thanks for posting.

[mckavitt]

@DavidoffGustav Yes, i know, and i agree with you entirely. I read a rather outdated critique of Wunderlich (in the Bach Easter Oratorio livret) that suggested that Wunderlich still had a lot of growing to do as a singing artist. As far as i'm concerned, death was permissable prematurely because, on the contrary, he had reached the pinnacle, still out of reach for the others. Domingo and Pavarotti had their moments of greatness tho', the former especially as Othello, the latter as Idomeneo.

[DavidoffGustav]

@mckavitt wunderlich died young.. otherwise i think he surpasses both domingo and pavarotti - has both their qualities - domingo's sheer beauty of tone and the ease of technique that pavorotti had

[mckavitt]

I also have this recording and wonderful it is. All three are at the top and i never heard Gueden or Wunderlich when they were not. Vielen Dank!