Voices from the Past

The perfection of modern studio recording is one thing. The excitement of live performance is another. Who, for example, would not want to hear two of the century's greatest Wagnerians, Soprano Kirsten Flagstad and Tenor Lauritz Melchior, sing Tristan und Isolde together as they did at the Metropolitan Opera before World War II? Trouble is, Flagstad and Melchior never commercially recorded a complete opera together. For that matter, Melchior never recorded any complete opera.

Now a solution is at hand. The deficit-ridden Met, needing every dollar it can get, has decided to go into the "live" record business. That means it is beginning to release its rich legacy of 45 years of Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts. A donation of $100 or more to the Metropolitan Opera Fund will bring the entire performance of Tristan broadcast on Feb. 8, 1941. The sound has been ably transferred from the original transcription discs by RCA Records (which donated its production costs).

The singing of Flagstad and Melchior should earn the album an honored place in any record collection. Sheer voice was their badge; yet what made them extraordinary was the uncanny way they could suggest a passion that was at once human and mythical. In particular, Flagstad's ability to float her tenderer notes was almost supernatural--and hard to forget.

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