Unkind Cuts: David Breckbill evaluates a pair of abridged historical performances from the Met

Much of my Wagnerian listening over the past few years has been undertaken in order to prepare reviews for this journal, and a high percentage of my assignments – well over half, by my tally – have focused on Bayreuth performances from the 1950s. I had not realised the extent to which immersion in that milieu had shaped my expectations until the present pair of releases came my way. Here are Wagner performances from roughly the same time but from a very different place and setting (the old Metropolitan Opera House in New York), and the differences strike me as quite remarkable.