Karajan conducts Wagner: Das Rheingold

Wagner’s Ring cycle demands an epic vision. Incredibly, this ambition film of Das Rheingold from 1978, based on the production that Herbert von Karajan conducted and directed at the Salzburg Festival, is the only surviving film of Karajan – one of the supreme Wagner conductors of all time – conducting a staged performance of one of Wagner’s music-dramas. Karajan’s directorial vision is traditional but potent, and with a cast that includes Thomas Stewart as Wotan, Brigitte Fassbaender as Fricka and Peter Schreier as the mischievous Loge, as well as the Berliner Philharmoniker in the orchestra pit, it sounds as striking as it looks.

Soloists: 

Brigitte Fassbaender (Mezzo-Soprano), Zoltan Kelemen (Bass), Peter Schreier (Tenor), Thomas Stewart (Baritone), Jeannine Altmeyer (Soprano), Hermin Esser (Baritone), Gerd Nienstedt (Bass), Karl Ridderbusch (Bass), Gerhard Stolze (Tenor), Leif Roar (Bass), Edda Moser (Soprano), Liselotte Rebmann (Soprano), Louis Hendrikx (Bass), Eva Randová (Mezzo-Soprano), Martha Mödl (Mezzo-Soprano), Birgit Finnilä (Contralto), Vladimir de Kanel (Bass)

Ensemble: 

Berliner Philharmoniker

Conductor: 

Herbert von Karajan