WAGNER - Siegfried
Despite Wagner’s genius, for some this opera is the ‘poor relation’ of the others in the Ring cycle. It only has eight voices in all, and one of those sings the part of a bird in the forest, and there are real difficulties in staging the scene when Siegfried has to fight Fafner (transformed into a dragon), who is guarding the gold. For others, however, Wagner the work is evidence of Wagner at his finest throughout, notwithstanding the fact that the composition of Act III followed a full eleven years after that of Acts I and II. Wagner was clearly so delighted to return to the Ring project that in the first scene of Act 3, when Wotan the Wanderer consults Erda, the earth goddess and mother to the Valkyries, his invention overflows with a vast number of leitmotifs.. Ths recording was made in 1990 with James Morris completing his portrayal of Wotan; the remainder of the cast includes Eva Marton as Brünnhilde and Siegfried Jerusalem in the title-role; Theo Adam and Peter Haage are the dwarves Alberich and Mime. Alongside these well-known Wagnerian appears Kiri Te Kanawa as the woodbird. As in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, Bernard Haitink conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

0946 3 58715 2 4 (4CDs)
0946 3 58715 5 5 (Digital Download)