After a nicely paced overture led by Richard Tauber recorded in 1944, this 1929 set of excerpts from Johann Strauss Jr.’s greatest operetta settles into 15 minutes of Act I, 21 of Act II, and 16 of Act III–and a delicious 50-plus minutes they certainly are! In 1929 and ’30 German Polydor recorded a series of abridged operas and operettas, mostly with its house conductor Hermann Weigert at the helm. Weigert also was responsible for the abridgements. He’s done a fine job here, with enough of each act for the plot to make sense (there’s even some dialogue–Pearl provides a detailed synopsis, although there’s only one track per act), and with most of anyone’s favorite Fledermaus music included. And the cast performs brilliantly, with enough spirit to make this seem like it was taken from a live performance, but with enough polish for a studio reading. Franz Volker’s Alfred is worth the set alone, but Adele Kern’s juicy Adele is superb as well. Willy Domgraf-Fassbaender’s Falke is wonderfully characterized and sung, Waldemar Henke (otherwise unknown to me) is likewise the real thing as Eisenstein, and Margaret Pfahl’s Roslinde is chock-full of fun and energy. The 70-year-old sound is amazingly clear. This is one-of-a-kind, and highly recommended.
