DiscountDelight - Renée Fleming - Strauss: Daphne

	List Price: $33.98 Our Price: $20.00 Your Save: $ 13.98 ( 41% ) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Manufacturer: Decca
Average Customer Rating:
Binding: Audio CD EAN: 0028947569268 Label: Decca Manufacturer: Decca Number Of Discs: 2 Publisher: Decca Release Date: 2005-09-13 Studio: Decca
Related Items Sacred Songs Cecilia Bartoli ~ Opera Proibita (Handel · Scarlatti · Caldara) / Les Musiciens du Louvre · Minkowski Wagner: Tristan und Isolde R. Strauss - Capriccio / Fleming, von Otter, Finley, Trost, Henschel, Hawlata, Dell'Oste, Banks, Tear, Schirmer, Paris Opera Haunted Heart
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: A gorgeous recording of a very underrated opera Comment: Sadly, Daphne is probably one of Srauss's most underrated operas, yet it is truly a masterpiece. And this album certainly does the opera every single bit of justice. Once again, Renee Fleming's voice has proven to be at its peak. She certainly is one of the best Strauss sopranos out there, and her Daphne is absolutely flawless on this recording. This is a must-have for all opera and Renee Fleming fans! Customer Rating: Summary: Green Daphne Comment: This is such a delightful album, it's about a girl who turns into a tree and voila, on this amazing cover, you can see Renee Fleming turning into a tree! She is such an artist. Why are people harping about her diction, everybody knows that she always sings in Renee Flemish, it's her very own special language. I don't like Strauss so much, except for the Blue Danube, but this album is very nice. Renee sounds like a bird. Such acute beauty, you can even say such acuti. I give it three shiny stars! Customer Rating: Summary: Dull Daphne Comment: Very disappointing recording. I like the orchestra playing under Byczkov, it's lively and elegant, Michael Schade as Leukippos is excellent, Botha is good enough in very demanding role of Apollo, contralto Anna Larsson and bass Kwangchul Youn are great, I'm glad to see many people noticed these two singers. It's only the big star of this recording that fails on many fronts. As Amazon review points out, Fleming's voice has become very ripe, matronly, she has long lost the silvery color. She is simply not convincing as a young girl, she lacks real intensity and pays no attention to the lyrics. Her German pronounciation is very mushy, like is speaking with soft Austrian accent and chewing gum - or yawning?- at the same time. I actually started listening to this album from track 3, I wanted to hear Schade as soon as possible, and right away I heard Fleming croon something that sounded like "Lykipos deoh!" It made me laugh actually, it sounded like Homer Simpson's trademark "doh!" Finally I checked the text: the line is simply "Leukippos, du!" And then it got worse, especially when paired with Schade's perfect diction. To top it all, she actually mispronounces the name of Daphne herself (it should be just Daph-na, not Daph-nay, please...) Her singing is not good enough to make up for it. This could have been a great new recording of one of Strauss' underrated and not often perfomed works, but this overpriced set amounts to vanity project for Fleming. The covers and CD booklet are all about her, other singers are hardly mentioned. The classic Bohm set with Hilde Guden or the recently released recording of Daphne with June Anderson from La Fenice staging are better sung and do not sound as canned. You can get better sound in a recording studio, but nothing beats the electric feel of these live performances. This Daphne album? One star for Bychkov, one collective star for Schade, Youn and Larsson. Zero stars for Ms "Daph-nay" Fleming. Customer Rating: Summary: Richard Strauss's Daphne Comment: Both Mlle. Fleming and Richard Strauss are favorites of mine. I have heard Mlle. Fleming in Rosenkavalier as well as Arabella on stage. This recording does not disappoint devotees of either the soprano or the composer. And the supporting cast -- particularly Johan Botha as Apollo -- provides glorious singing. The Cologne WDR symphony orchestra does full justice to Strauss's heavy demands. Customer Rating: Summary: Excellent Comment: Gorgeous vocal music performed gorgeously. As is typical for Strauss, there is a lot of demanding and beautiful writing for soprano. The orchestration is lovely as well. Perhaps without the drama or tension of his best operas but this is not a second rate work like Danae. All performances, especially that by the consistently outstanding Renee Fleming, are excellent. The Orchestra has a lovely sound. Well worth owning if you are interested in opera. More Reviews
Editorial Reviews: This rarely performed one-act opera dating from 1938 is not one of Strauss's great works, but its 100 minutes has some ravishingly beautiful music. However, the story of a simple nature-girl who rejects the advances of the god Apollo and is turned into a laurel tree is uniquely enchanting, handsomely orchestrated, and contains some wonderful vocal writing for soprano and a pair of tenors--the latter being very rare in Strauss. Renée Fleming sings the title role beautifully, although some might argue that her voice is too ripe and slightly too big for the part of a very young, virginal girl. But she certainly has all the notes and her silvery tone is irresistible. Johann Botha's Apollo is note-perfect: no mean feat given how high and loud the role is. But he sings with less passion than, say, James King in the same role on DG. Michael Schade, as Leukippos, Daphne's innocent suitor, is ardent and also copes well with Strauss's sometimes cruel writing--one phrase begins on a high C! The rest of the cast is very good. Semyon Bychkov leads a clear, well-paced performance and the WDR Symphony and Chorus play and sing expertly. The number one choice may still be the DG recording under Böhm, but Fleming fans will be very pleased to hear her in this beautiful, strange work. --Robert Levine