Metropolitan Opera Archives

The season's first performance of "Die Walkuere" introduced a new Sieglinde, Hunding and Siegrune to Metropolitan Opera audiences in the persons of Inge Borkh, William Wilderman, and Helen Vanni. But the major accolade for a deeply moving, cumulatively eloquent performance must go to Fritz Stiedry, who is one of the few Wagner conductors left to us these days who knows the traditions, the texts and the music of the operas equally thoroughly and who conducts them with love and profound understanding.

Miss Borkh sang competently enough, but she projected few of the finer shades of the role, either in the ecstatic love music of Act I or the pathetic music of Act II; and her final outburst in Act III taxed her voice heavily. Her costume was almost as embarrassing as the potato-sack worn by Marianne Schech last season-and Miss Schech did not wear high-heeled pumps in Hunding's hut!

Mr. Wilderman had a firm grasp of the part but needs more authority and musical assurance in it. Like all of the Valkyries, Miss Vanni sang beautifully. (They neither looked nor sounded like eagles.) The others were Gloria Lind, Carlotta Ordassy, Heidi Krall, Margaret Roggero, Martha Lipton, Mariquita Moll and Belen Amparan - a distinguished group of Wunschmaedchen.

Magnificent, in Act III especially, were Margaret Harshaw, as Bruennhilde, and Otto Edelmann, as Wotan. And Fricka has always been one of Blanche Thebom's best roles-imposing in bearing and noble in sound. Ramon Vinay seemed to be still struggling with the indisposition which had cut short his performance as Tristan a few evenings earlier, but he strove manfully. After a pale first act, this performance rose to a stirring climax full of both magic and fire.

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