Strauss, Richard: Die Frau ohne Schatten

Die Frau ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss
Cast: Rene Kollo, Cheryl Studer, Hanna Schwarz, Andreas Schmidt, Cyndia Sieden, Paul Frey, Julie Kaufmann, Marjana Lipovsek, Alfred Muff, Ute Vinzing, Jan Hendrick Rootering, Kurt Rydl, Kenneth Garrison & Birgit Calm, with the Tolzer Childrens' Choir and the Choir and Symphony Orchestra of Bavarian Radio conducted by Wolfgang Sawallich.
Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Label: His Master's Voice
Catalogue number: EX 749074-1
Country of Issue: Germany/UK
Date: 1988
First complete recording
Stereo
Digital (DMM)
Format: LP Boxed Set (3 discs plus booklet)
Label design: latest red label HMV, full colour logo
Discs: Near Mint, unmarked
Outer box: Near Mint, unmarked
Inner sleeves: original, polylined, as new
Booklet: CD size in tray 304pp, perfect. Full notes, bios and libretto in German and English.

This item appears as new throughout except as mentioned above. Acquired by us in 2007 as part of a large collection but never played since.   A beautifully produced luxury set. 

Die Frau ohne Schatten is a giant among operas, and as the booklet notes say, in this work Sttrauss poses  daunting challenges, and asks for normal limits to be overstepped - the concept is one of 'magnificent ambition'.   Finished in 1917 while WWI was still raging,  the opera was first staged at the Vienna State Opea on 10 October 1919.  This is the first complete recording, made in 1987 in Munich, and released in 1988, one of the last full vinyl sets from HMV and is a sumptuous sound-fest with Direct Metal Mastering.