Word: dernesch
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...were crammed excitedly into Orchestra Hall for Solti's concert performance of Act III of Wagner's Die Götterdämmerung They witnessed a true musical event. Tenor Jess Thomas died magnificently as Siegfried, and the audience could almost feel the flames as Soprano Helga Dernesch submitted herself to Brünnhilde's immolation. It was a remarkable performance, a fitting finish to Solti's successful spring stint in Chicago. If Chicagoans needed any reminder, the spirited and darkly dramatic rendition of Götterdämmerung demonstrated anew that there...
Wagner, Tristan und Isolde (Tenor Jon Vickers, Soprano Helga Dernesch, Soprano Christa Ludwig, Baritone Walter Berry, Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan conducting; Angel, 5 LPs, $29.90). What a cast of performers! What a disappointment! Given Karajan's past flair for Wagner, not to mention stalwart Tenor Vickers as Tristan, this could well have been, the stereo statement of Wagner's endless paean to adultery. Instead, it is merely a smooth, workmanlike job, hampered by Dernesch's inability to make Isolde alive enough so that her death is significant. The record is also marred by the cavernous, "first...
...recording is a knockout, fully comparable to London's history-making Ring cycle. Conductor Georg Solti, today's top conductor of Wagner, makes the opera brilliant and unabashedly grand. As Venus, Mezzo-Soprano Christa Ludwig seethes with eroticism, suggesting a world of impossible sexuality. Soprano Helga Dernesch as Elisabeth, Wagner's virginal opposite to Venus, is the perfect embodiment of pinched Victorian purity. Best of all is Tenor René Kollo, a German pop singer metamorphosed into a Heldentenor, who sings Tannhäuser with a gleaming tone, power, and a dramatic force unequaled since Lauritz Melchior...