Donizetti: Don Pasquale (Live 2-CD) – Fritz Wunderlich

Composer: Gaetano Donizetti
Artists: Kurt Böhme, Fritz Wunderlich, Raimond Grumbach, Erika Köth, Hans Hermann Nissen, Chor und Orchester der Bayerischen Staatsoper München
Conductors: Meinhard von Zallinger
Number of Discs: 2
Label: Profil - G Haenssler
CD Release date: February 14, 2020

This album features a recording made during a performance at the Prinzregententheater in Munich on January 18, 1962. It was directed by Rudolf Hartmann and the performance was given, as was usual in those days, in German.

The original analogue tapes were stored at the Fritz Wunderlich Society in Kusel (in the Rhineland-Palatinate), and have been restored by TechneAudio in Baden-Württemberg. Some specialists suspect that the recordings were made by Fritz Wunderlich himself, a great fan of the latest technology. Despite costly and careful restoration of the tapes, some defects and intrusive artefacts on the mono tapes, some of which are damaged, are clearly audible. However, the historic significance of this recording certainly justifies its release. Not surprisingly, Fritz Wunderlich (1930-1966) in the role of Ernesto receives the greatest attention.

Probably Germany’s greatest tenor knew just how to cultivate the love-sick bachelor, as he did with all his roles, and to breathe life into the character with his inimitable voice. In addition to lyric qualities, the role demands other skills such as the canto fiorito style of ornamented singing of the nineteenth century.

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