Nicolai: Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor

• Cast: Fritz Wunderlich (Fenton), Gottlob Frick (Falstaff), Ernst Gutstein (Herr Fluth), Kieth Engen (Herr Reich), Friedrich Lenz (Spärlich), Carl Hoppe (Dr. Cajus), Ruth-Margret Pütz (Frau Fluth), Gisela Litz (Frau Reich), Edith Mathis (Jungfer Anna Reich), Walter Ehrengut (Kellner), Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper, Bayerisches Staatsorchester, cond. Robert Heger

• Jeremy Noble in "The Metropolitan Opera Guide To Recorded Opera": "It is no disrespect to the fine singers in this version to say that its real star is the conductor, Robert Heger. He was nearly eighty when it was made, and this may show in tempos that are occasionally a shade more easygoing than necessary, but this is more than compensated by the ease, the loving care, with which those tempos are molded and modified. Throughout one has the sense that Heger knows the work inside out as a stage piece and is concerned above all with helping his singers projects their roles in the action. Not that Frick's wonderfully ripe Falstaff needs much help - a bit broad, perhaps, in comparison with Streinz, but hugely enjoyable. Wunderlich, not surprisingly, is an ideal Fenton, ardently lyrical in the love music; his scene with Herr Reich (a finely authorative Kieth Engen) has real dramatic bite. Mathis's Anna (one of her earliest performances on records) makes a good partner for him; she may bring less fire to the role than Lore Hoffmann in the Urania version, but both voice and charecterization have an appealing freshness. The merry wives themselves, it must be said, are adequate rather than exciting; they know what the words mean and how the music goes, but somehow remain a bit generic. But the performance as whole goes so well, its gaiety and poetry (the famous moonrise in Act III, for instance) so perfectly balanced, that it fully merits its reissue on CD. The recording was originally issued in Germany on three LP discs with fairly full dialogue, discreetly modernized, but for English-speaking countries EMI omitted the dialogue and the first scene of Act III to get it on two records; the CD reissue is complete." [in comparison with 1943 recording on Urania label]

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	EMI CMS7 69348 2 Studio (2 CD)
	Electrola 91265/67 E (3 LP)
	Electrola 91267/68 STE (3 LP)
	EMI 1C 183-30191/93 (3 LP)
	EMI 1C 197-30191/93 (3 LP)
	EMI 137 EX 290940 3 (2 LP)
	HMV ALP 2031/32 (mono, 2 LP)
	HMV ASD 580/1 (2 LP)

Highlights on

	Electrola 80803 SME
	EMI 1C 037-29003
	EMI 1C 063-29003
	Electrola 1C 243-29003

Excerpts on

	EMI 25 2945 2 ("Horch, die Lerche singt im Hain", + other opera excerpts, on "Festival der deutschen Tenöre")
	EMI 7243 478276 2 4 ("Horch, die Lerche singt im Hain", + other opera excerpts, on "Festival der deutschen Tenöre 1-3", 3 CD)
	EMI CZS 7 62993 2 ("Fenton! - Mein Mädchen" on "FW - The Great German Tenor", 3 CD)
	EMI 5 67452 2 ("Eure Tochter! - Meine Tochter!" on "Great moments of... FW", 3 CD)
	EMI 5759152 ("Horch, die Lerche singt im Hain" and "Fenton! - Mein Mädchen" on "The very best of FW", 2 CD)
	Angel 6157 (on "?")
	Angel 36149 (on "?")
	Angel 60043 (on "?")
	Electrola 80769 E ("Horch, die Lerche singt im Hain" on "O holde Dame")
	Electrola 80769 STE ("Horch, die Lerche singt im Hain" on "O holde Dame")
	Electrola HÖRZU SHZE 193 (on "FW Der grosse lyrische Tenor - Oper Operette Volkslied")
	EMI 1C 063-28420 ("Horch, die Lerche singt im Hain" on "O holde Dame")
	EMI 1C 187 29298/99 (on "FW In Memoriam", 2 LP)
	EMI 1C 187 29298/99 (on "FW In Memoriam", 2 LP)
	EMI HQS 1168 (HMV) (on "FW Golden Voice Series (No. 12) - Opera and Operetta Arias")

Fritz Wunderlich Discography