Decca's Compact Opera Collection has just entered its second phase. It began with ten titles last April, and has now added a further ten. What exactly does it have to offer?
Its distinctive feature is that the operas carry the words "enhanced CD." The first disc of each opera contains the libretto in four languages -- English, German, French and Italian -- accessible by computer.
Most recording companies try to up-date their old stock by marketing it as having freshened-up sound quality. Decca, by contrast, are turning the public's attention to the text.
The graphics of the specimen examined (Wagner's Lohengrin) were identical to what you would see in an old-fashioned booklet, though its easy magnification on screen is a definite plus. Even so, some listeners might consider the booklet format more convenient. It's bad luck, for example, if you want to listen to the opera on a personal stereo anywhere away from your computer.
And because the complete text and the first part of each opera are both contained on the first CD of what is usually a three-CD set, if you want to hear that first CD on your home stereo system it's necessary to copy the text onto your hard drive first.
So, what recordings have benefited from this treatment? Decca have always been a leading opera label, and it's not surprising that some very fine performances are among the versions here on offer. It would be hard to do justice to all 20, but many nevertheless demand special mention.
One of the most distinguished is also one of the more recent titles (none of these recordings, it should be pointed out, is new). This is Strauss' Elektra, recorded live in Boston in 1988 with Hildegard Behrens in the title role and Christa Ludwig as Klytemnestra. This is a bargain -- if, that is, you can tolerate the manic and cacophonous nature of much of the music. It's a brilliant work, nonetheless. Seiji Ozawa conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Also outstanding is Leinsdorf's version of Die Walkure with Jon Vickers as Siegmund and Birgit Nilsson as Brunnhilde, both incomparable. George London is less stellar as Wotan, but is nevertheless entirely satisfactory. Though there are, of course, many rival versions, this one nonetheless never ceases to give intense pleasure at almost all points. The excited apprehension of the valkyries immediately after the famous "ride," as a furious Wotan approaches, flying from mountain top to mountain top, is totally intoxicating. It's good to know this fine rendering is still holding its own into the 21st century.
Then there's Lohengrin, recorded live at Bayreuth in 1962 with Jess Thomas in the title role and Anja Silja as Elsa. There are times at the beginning when it sounds as if scene shifters wearing heavy boots are still at work and an early form of SARS has struck the audience. Nevertheless the rendering under the renowned Wolfgang Sawallish is atmospheric, and Anja Silja manages to be generally tender yet wildly fierce when necessary.
But it's Jess Thomas's ringing rendition of his exceptionally lyrical role that constitutes the strongest recommendation for this historic recording.
This was the opera especially loved by Thomas Mann who recalled that tears came to his eyes whenever he heard its opening bars, transporting the listener as they do back to a magical, mythical Medieval world.
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