ME 168 Mitropoulos conducts Wagner Die Walküre, New York Met 1957 (live) with Schech, Vinay, Edelmann, Thebom, Harshaw

Mitropoulos conducts Wagner Die Walküre
Margaret Harshaw, soprano Marianne Schech, soprano Blanche Thebom, mezzo-soprano Ramón Vinay, tenor

Otto Edelmann, bass
Kurt Böhme, bass
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra,
New YorkDimitri/ Dimitri Mitropoulos

Vinay joins cast in Die Walküre

Ramón Vinay sang the role of Siegmund for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera yesterday afternoon in a lively performance of Wagner’s Die Walküre.

Mr Vinay’s Siegmund was a credible and sympathetic figure instead of the strutting braggard the Volsung hero so often is allowed to be. His acting was alert and sensitive . He contrived to make the first act wresting of the sword from the tree a moment of dramatic suspense…

ED, The New York Times, 3 February 1957

There is nothing wrong with Wagner that a good performance won’t cure. Die Walküre, back at the Met after a season’s absence, had such a performance last night and its torren- tial power swept all before it.

Die Walküre has been refurbished musically by the Met, which is presenting it in the course of two complete Ring cycles. It has been placed in the hands of Dimitri Mitropoulos, who did a fine job.

His pacing was well-considered and there was subtlety in the unfolding of the score. Save for several passages where the conduc- tor, in an excess of excitement, let the instru- ments drown out a singer, the orchestra was encouraged to play with sensitivity. The great curve of the music-drama, moreover, was never neglected…

Harold Taubman, New York Times, 23 January 1957 review of the previous performance of Die Walküre on 22 January 1957, with a partially different cast. . . [extract from full liner notes]