J Strauss: Die Fledermaus

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2007-09-21 rating:
Hilarious, side-splitting!!
This recording of Strauss' masterwork of comedy, Die Fledermaus, is just wonderful. Joan Sutherland is just SO funny! People who say she can't act are sadly deluded...Maria Callas could never be so funny, not if she tried her hardest! Joan has such an intuitive understanding of the layers of humour and timing, delivery and quipping are second to none. She also lends her humoungous high notes to the ends of the ensembles which are often left out by sopranos like Te Kanawa who can't get up there, which is a shame as it seems a bit of an anti-climax to go down at the end. Overall, Joan Sutherland's performance is supreme, no-one sings the Czardas like her! Who else pulls off the coloratura passages in the Friscka section at the end, sounds so rich in the low lying opening and gives the whole piece such a sentimental and exciting air where needed?? Also a nice touch that she sings it in Hungarian (read the liner notes for a funny story about this :-D).

Although Joan steals the show, the rest of the cast are wonderful. Judith Blegen's Adele is also hilarious. She is just over-the-top enough to make it funny, but not distastefully so. Her Audition Song is wonderful, and her violin solo is very impressive! She makes the Laughing Song her own and really is fantastic, making the "Ha, ha, ha" actually sound like she is laughing, a rare achievement among soubrettes...so rare that no-one else I have heard has in fact managed without actually laughing instead of singing the notes! Huguette Tourangeau nails it as Orlovsky, being OTT enough without over-doing it.

The male members of the cast are also very strong, but it is Joan Sutherland's night! The cast all really work well together, bouncing off each other to create a wonderful experience!

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