{"product_id":"richard-strauss_discotheque-ideale-de-diapason-volume-7-operas-de-strauss-coffret-15-cd_2016","title":"Discothèque idéale de diapason Volume 7 Opéras de Strauss Coffret 15 CD","description":"Strauss or Wagner? A volume stacking the first composer’s seven great operas (since one can live without Feuersnot, can’t one…)? A box set grouping those of the second (excluding the Ring)? The debate did not drag on at Diapason. Wagner and his mythology will come, rest assured, but the Strauss adventure proved even more exciting. Just think: immersion in a generation of singers who knew Strauss closely or from afar, or worked with his disciples, or even received advice from the creators of his roles. Here, wonder is not didactic: very different voices may have been favored, in the same role, in the composer’s eyes. Oktavian sopranos and altos alternate from the 1930s onward. But one thing is clear, blindingly so from one end of the fifteen CDs to the other: all these singers, absolutely all of them, had theater in their bones. The tempo, phrasing, character, and of course the vocal texture of Lisa Della Casa place her at the opposite end of the spectrum from Maria Reining in the great scene from Ariadne auf Naxos, but in both the former and the latter, every moment, every breath makes sense. The same obviousness and the same singularity in this aria (presented in various bonus tracks) embodied by Lotte Lehmann or Maria Cebotari: not a syllable that does not rest lazily on the soaring line! Strauss’s fascination with the female voice was not rapt admiration for a languorous beauty but a powerful desire that passes through the word. Let that be said! If the choice of Böhm 1955 was fairly straightforward for Die Frau ohne Schatten (how happy we are, incidentally, to see André Tubeuf as a partner in this adventure), Emmanuel Dupuy and Didier Moer were the most exposed to cruel hesitations. Thank God, having adored for days on end the outbursts of Salome and Elektra did not affect their natural courtesy. Emmanuel, moreover, serves up the final scene of Salome twice for you — if you have never heard Cebotari and Welitsch here, brace yourself! Stéphane Grant stuck, if one may say so, to Ariadne (Max Lorenz definitely tipped the scales in favor of the 1944 anniversary gala), Jean-Philippe Grosperrin surprised us regarding Arabella: Della Casa, of course, but from the Vienna performance of 1958 recently rediscovered. For the “conversation in music” of Capriccio, Jean-Charles Hoffelé bowed to the 1957 classic with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf — but would on no account have sacrificed as a bonus the final scene by Della Casa in Hilversum. And what about Der Rosenkavalier, you may ask? Christian Merlin devotes it, once again, to Della Casa, the Marschallin for Karajan in those blessed evenings in Salzburg in 1960, with Jurinac, Güden, Edelmann… One can live, yes, without Feuersnot, but it is not useless to plunge once into the delirium of a declaration of love over which the shadow of Wagner hovers — especially when Cebotari responds with wit to the masculine ardor of Karl Schmitt-Walter. Two standalone pieces as well, from Helena Egiptica (a role in which Rose Pauly’s sensuality leaves us on our knees), the divine trio from Die schweigsame Frau, the metamorphosis of Cebotari-Daphne: and that is all, a body of work without precedent, which Christian Merlin introduces in a text summarizing the composer’s operatic journey. An essential introduction for a box set intended for both the neophyte and the collector. (Gaëtan Naulleau)","brand":"Richard Strauss","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58815953437016,"sku":null,"price":23109312.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0898\/4943\/0360\/files\/3770003441991.jpg?v=1792189953","url":"https:\/\/vinyles.com\/en-us\/products\/richard-strauss_discotheque-ideale-de-diapason-volume-7-operas-de-strauss-coffret-15-cd_2016","provider":"Vinyles.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}