Jess Thomas; Elisabeth Grümmer; Christa Ludwig; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau; "LOHENGRIN"; R. Wagner

Описание: Jess Thomas---Lohengrin
Elisabeth Grümmer---Elsa
Christa Ludwig---Ortrud
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau---Telramund
Gottlob Frick---Heinrich
Otto Wiener---Herald
Wiener Philharmoniker
Rudolf Kempe---conductor
1963
=================================
Gramophone Magazine1963
Kempe gives this music a mystical edge his rivals lack, and he does so with a painter's sense of colour.
===========================
Gramophone MagazineJuly 2010
Thomas is blazingly sincere...piloted by Kempe's skill at eliciting the vital, [he] makes much of the recitatives. Christa Ludwig sings Ortrud with a sensuous, beautiful chill and acid contempt...Fischer-Dieskau has the role's vocal measure in placing Telramund as a weak, ambitious, disappointed man
==============================
MusicWeb International9th July 2013
Kempe’s set gave us the finest Ortrud on disc in Christa Ludwig
===========================
Set in 10th-century Antwerp, the story revolves around Elsa of Brabant, who is falsely accused of her brother Gottfried's murder by Friedrich von Telramund and his wife, the sorceress Ortrud. King Heinrich calls a trial by combat to settle the matter. When Elsa, having dreamt of a champion, is about to be left without a defender, a mysterious knight arrives in a boat drawn by a swan.
The knight agrees to fight for Elsa and marry her, provided she never asks his identity. Elsa agrees to this condition. The knight defeats Telramund in combat, sparing his life, and the people celebrate Elsa's innocence and the forthcoming marriage.
On their wedding night, fueled by doubt sown by Ortrud's manipulations, Elsa breaks her promise and asks the forbidden question. Lohengrin, before the King and the populace, reveals his name and origin: he is a Knight of the Holy Grail, son of Parsifal. Because his secret has been revealed, he must return to the Grail's castle forever. Before he leaves, the swan is transformed back into Elsa's lost brother, Gottfried, who was under Ortrud's spell. Lohengrin departs in a boat now drawn by a dove, and a grief-stricken Elsa falls lifeless to the ground.