The Wagner Journal
The Norwegian Nightingale: Disappointed by an inferior transfer, Mike Ashman offers his own posthumous tribute to Ingrid Bjoner
The Norwegian Nightingale: Disappointed by an inferior transfer, Mike Ashman offers his own posthumous tribute to Ingrid Bjoner
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Review of Lohengrin, conducted Sawallisch, Milan, 1965; Senta’s Ballad (Der fliegende Holländer), conducted Sawallisch, Rome, 1969; ‘O Sachs! Mein Freund!’ (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), conducted Zaun, Duisburg, 1961; ‘Der Männer Sippe’ (Die Walküre), conducted Richrath, Berlin, 1961; ‘Dich teure Halle’ (Tannhäuser), conducted Kraus, 1962 (Living Stage, 3 CDs).
November 2007, Volume 1, Number 3, 110–12.
The present release – or the majority of it – is not that much of a tribute. Elsa was important to Bjoner near the start of her career: it was her first major Wagner assumption (in Wuppertal) and her debut role in both San Francisco (1960) and New York (1961). This Living Stage 2002 release derives from a poor copy of the broadcast of her La Scala debut. It encapsulates all the minuses, and few of the pluses, of the flood of such Wagner releases now on the market.