Händel: Alcina HWV 34

• Cast: Fritz Wunderlich (Ruggiero), Dame Joan Sutherland (Alcina), Jeanette van Dijck (Morgana), Norma Procter (Bradamante), Nicola Monti (Oronte), Thomas Hemsley (Melisso), Kölner Rundfunk-Chor, Capella Coloniensis, cond. Ferdinand Leitner

• "The ideal of a Handel interpretation of today was fulfilled by Fritz Wunderlich.... Wunderlich reached a solitary height in spirit, style, voice, in lyricism and drama, while adapting perfectly to the ... ensemble." ("Neue Rhein-Zeitung", 1959-05-22)
• "On one famous occasion, when he was only twenty-eight, he undertook to rescue a concert performance, complete with simultaneous broadcast, of Handel's opera Alcina by singing the leading tenor role opposite Joan Sutherland, with one brief preliminary run-ghrough. He had some half dozen highly complex arias to sing, and he had never seen or heard the music before, but I remember being told by the British baritone Thomas Hemsley, who was also in the cast, that Wunderlich did not only read the part faultlessly but also sang it with the utmost finesse of phrasing and interpretation." (Nigel Douglas in "Legendary Voices", see Bibliography)

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	Golden Melodram GM 5.0023 (2 CD)
	Melodram MEL 37002 (3 CD, + J. Sutherland sings arias)
	Rodolphe RPC 32563/64 (2 CD)
	Verona 27011/13 (3 CD)
	Verona 30010/18 (9 CD; = 27011/13 + 27032/34 + 27035/37)
	Melodram 022 (3 LP)
	UORC 353 (2 LP, only highlights?)

Highlights on

	I Gioielli Della Lirica 54
	Rodolphe RP 12709

Excertps on

	MYTO MCD 917.52 ("Mi lusinga il dolce affetto" and "Sta nell'Ircana, pietrosa tana", + excertps from Serse, + Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia, 2 CD)
	MYTO 2 MCD 925.71 ("Mi lusinga il dolce affetto" and "Sta nell'Ircana, pietrosa tana", + excertps from Serse, + The Messiah, 2 CD)
	WDR ? ("Stà nell'Ircana", + 2 arias without FW, + a literary lecture of "Amers" by Saint-John Perse)

Fritz Wunderlich Discography