Helen Traubel and Lauritz Melchior Sing Wagner (CD) by Astrid Varnay (soprano), Helen Traubel (soprano), Herbert Janssen (baritone), Herta Glaz (mezzo-soprano), Kurt Baum (tenor);...

This release offers a fascinating aural snapshot of Wagnerian singing in 1940s America. Lauritz Melchior was the quintessential 'Heldentenor'--the heroic vocal type required to cope with the heavy demands of roles such as Tristan and Siegfried--and he was the foremost interpreter of those roles for decades. His powerful delivery in excerpts from 'Rienzi,' 'Lohengrin,' and 'Tristan und Isolde' gives a hint of his almost superhuman endurance. Especially impressive is the long excerpt from Act III of 'Tristan' with its rapturous, hallucinatory monologues.

Helen Traubel--heard here in other 'Lohengrin' and 'Tristan' excerpts, though never alongside Melchior--is equally impressive as Elsa and Isolde. Her perfectly controlled voice is warmer and richer than many Wagnerian sopranos, and she is equally convincing in the tumultuous mood shifts of Isolde's "Narrative and Curse" and in the transcendent "Liebestod."

These recordings were made before complete Wagner operas were committed to record, and some of the excerpts are altered to fit the format of the day--for once, the great love scene of Act II of 'Tristan' ends not with a violet interruption, but with the culmination of a major chord! While there is some variation in sound quality, at its best the remastered monaural sound is remarkably good.