Palme d’Or: Dexter Drown is won over by another Swedish Brünnhilde

Many music lovers have ‘favourite’ recordings of dearly cherished operas. For Wagner’s Ring the late eighties and early nineties saw the release of three complete cycles which for many are now firm favourites: in 1987 James Levine and the Met, a few years later Wolfgang Sawallisch’s live recording from the Bavarian State Opera and in 1992 Bernard Haitink with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. One might think that against this star-studded backdrop there is no room on the shelf for another recording of a Ring opera from this time. The small Swedish label Sterling, which specialises in previously unrecorded or unheard recordings of Romantic works, clearly begs to differ. This live performance of Die Walküre was recorded at the Danish National Opera in 1987 with the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra and conductor Francesco Cristofoli leading an entirely Scandinavian cast.