Hotter is great as well.
And Hines on the Kempe 1960 Walkure is awesome.

 

I do remember hearing Hotter on the Solti WALKEURE when I was in college, but I haven't heard it since and can't really call it to mind right now. I haven't got much experience with different Wotans, but recently I heard Bryn Terfel's recording of Wotan's Farewell that he made with Abbado in 2000 or so and was surprised by how effective it was -- very beautiful and touching.

 

Hotter is still my favorite, closely tied with McIntyre, but I also enjoy the more lyrical approach of Thomas Stewart or James Morris. I'm not too big on Terfel's Wotan though, personally, his light and clear voice puts me off, much like Fischer-Dieskau's did when he recorded Wotan. Never heard Rene Pape singing the entire role, only the Leb Wohl, and I was quite pleased with that.

 

I didn't really care for Terfel either. He was ok though.
James Morris was very good as was Stewart.

 

I'm with you. His dark, virile roar was made for Gottheit. I grew up (1960s) with him on the Solti Rheingold and the Leinsdorf Walkure (a recording which deserves more acclaim than it gets, BTW - best all-round cast of any, in my estimation, if a little recessed in vocal presence). Hotter was great, of course, though rougher-sounding even when young; I can't enjoy him much by the time he recorded Solti's Walkure, Shakespearean eloquence notwithstanding. Some others have done well, but - no, London has the measure of the part: an absolutely individual voice, great intelligence, superb diction, the whole package.

 

. . . the Leinsdorf Walkure (a recording which deserves more acclaim than it gets, BTW - best all-round cast of any, in my estimation, if a little recessed in vocal presence).

Second all of this.

 

Hotter is awesome on the Krauss but by the time he got round to recording the role with Solti, the voice had worn badly. Of course, there are Wotans with just as little voice as the later Hotter but little of the insights he brought to the part.
Stewart for Karajan is good but a bit light on voice. I also think Theo Adam was good in the role.
Actually, I think Wotan is a pain of a role, a mass of contradictions. I have no sympathy for him at all. He is just a greedy, self-centred power monger. The farewell at the end of Walkure is supposed to be heart rending but I'm just irritated by this self obsessed creep who, having got his daughter into this mess, now lets her take the rap for it. Mind you, reading the history of the Wagner family, it doesn't surprise me the image of fathers the self-absorbed RW imagined.
If a Wotan can make us sympathise with him in this role he has done a good job.

 

Hotter...particularly with the Keilberth '55 recording.

 

I like McIntyre best. Hotter is an obvious choice as was London. I sometimes wonder how London would have sounded as Alberich with his somewhat Ogreish sound lol. I love the way basses sound in the role as well, but oftentimes the role lies too high & the strain becomes apparent especially at the end of Walkure...call me crazy but I don't like Morris' voice in the role at all. It sounds all wrong after listening to other great Wotan's. I know he is generally regarded as the Wotan of his generation, but his voice is not for me. I also don't like Terfel very much in the role. I prefer him in less dramatic stuff.

 

Hotter, 1955 Keilberth.

 

Hotter '57 Kna' and Morris for Levine. The final passages of Walkure are amazing in the Levine recording. Very lyrical, and very beautiful.

 

Any Hans Hotter from the 1950s Bayreuth as Wotan/Wanderer......he is able to characterize the role better than any other I have heard, his agile nuanced voice paints the most complete emotional canvas for me, others are singing notes Hotter brings them vividly to life, his lieder training paying off in spades

 

While he is overlooked because it is the slow Goodall Ring, I think that Norman Bailey belongs up there with the best. As to Terfel ... not impressed.

 

Hans Hotter will do it for me, any day of the week.

 

I really like James Morris' Wotan in the Levine 1990 DVD. I think it is also that James Morris was my first Hans Sachs in Meistersinger and I like him there quite well also.

 

Can you explain to me the appeal of James Morris in the role of Wotan? Not to be antagonistic at all, I genuinely want to understand this. I really like his acting, but I don't understand why people like the voice. To my ears it is among the least godlike of the Wotan's I've heard. Its even whiney sounding & tenorial at times. Not what I expect from the god of gods. I know he has the reputation as the best Wotan of his generation & I'd love to know why.

 

James Morris certainly looked the part the most. On CD I like Tomlinson best.

 

Friedrich Schorr and Alexander Kipnis run Rings around the competition for me.

 

Great choices! I especially like Kipnis' farewell.

 

Kipnis was a deep bass, not a bass-baritone. He didn't sing Wotan on stage - the high notes would stretch him a little - but this is fabulous:

Gurnemanz was his greatest Wagner part, and no one was better at it.

There were giants in the earth in those days.

 

There were giants in the earth in those days.

Of course there were! What would the Ring be without them?

 

Schorr is my blind spot among Wotans--I've yet to hear a recording of him I like. By 1941, he's clearly the weak link in the great day-before-Pearl-Harbor Met Walküre broadcast under Leinsdorf, with Melchior, Traubel debuting as Brünnhilde, and the twenty-three-year old Varnay making her first stage appearance ever as Sieglinde. Schorr's aged, colorless voice, lacking any vibrato, is just a blunt instrument on high notes.

That was at the very end of his career, but I have similar issues with his recordings from the 30's, like the 1936 San Francisco Walküre Act II conducted by Reiner, with Melchior, Flagstad, and Lehmann.

Maybe I'll have to look into even earlier recordings to fully appreciate his ability.

 

Schorr is my blind spot among Wotans--I've yet to hear a recording of him I like. By 1941, he's clearly the weak link in the great day-before-Pearl-Harbor Met Walküre broadcast under Leinsdorf, with Melchior, Traubel debuting as Brünnhilde, and the twenty-three-year old Varnay making her first stage appearance ever as Sieglinde. Schorr's aged, colorless voice, lacking any vibrato, is just a blunt instrument on high notes.

That was at the very end of his career, but I have similar issues with his recordings from the 30's, like the 1936 San Francisco Walküre Act II conducted by Reiner, with Melchior, Flagstad, and Lehmann.

Maybe I'll have to look into even earlier recordings to fully appreciate his ability.

The best sound quality to really hear Schorr in prime voice is the Pristine XR potted Ring from 1926-32 HMV studio recordings, and many other famous singers of the same era......must wait a bit longer till Pristine website is back on line

 

George London Sings Wotan's Farewell



I'll second that emotion!

:tiphat:

Kind regards,

George

 

Did anyone have the privilege of hearing John Tomlinson live? His voice seems cavernous & huge on recordings. Did it sound that way in the house?

 

The reason why John Tomlinson sounds different is because he started out as a Bass. He usually played Hagen. Tomlinson is my favourite Wotan, followed by George London.

 

^ Wow, That IS Wotan! I may have to change my avatar picture. But where is the eye patch? Oh it is an eyglass with a black lens. Hey, what is with the geometry later in the clip?

 

The famous or infamous laser ring. My personal recommendation for the Ring on DVD. Sort of inspired the Matrix ten years later. And it still has the best immolation scene on DVD, though the ending is still a bit weird for me.

 

I saw Norman Bailey in Glasgow many years ago when ENO brought the Ring there with Rita Hunter and Alberto Remedios. That was a fabulous production and Bailey was a brilliant Wotan.

 

Who do you all find is the best Wotan singing the role currently?

 

Bryn Terfel have never heard his Wotan live, but have heard him sing the Dutchman. And I must say recordings do not do justice to his voice. Live he sounds so much more resonant, deep and chocolaty. His voice is far larger than you may think, so I would love to hear his Wotan.

 

Whoever your Wotan is right now, you need to hear this singer I've just discovered, Austrian baritone HANS REINMAR(1895-1961).

Here's a bit of bio:

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/mar04/Reinmar.htm

His other YouTube selections are well worth hearing, especially his Amfortas and a spine-tingling Otello "vengeance duet" with Helge Roswaenge (in German).

 

^^^^ Nice, the name was unknown to me previously, goes back to the discussion of really great wagner singers in the old days virtually unknown today.....

As great as Hotter was in the 1950s there are even better examples from 1940s, here is an early 1942 "wotans farewell" what an amazing emotional vocal characterization such a beautiful soft voice, a true artist............

 

^^^^ Nice, the name was unknown to me previously, goes back to the discussion of really great wagner singers in the old days virtually unknown today.....


As great as Hotter was in the 1950s there are even better examples from 1940s, here is an early "wotans farewell" what an amazing emotional vocal characterization such a beautiful soft voice, a true artist............

I'm constantly and pleasantly surprised at my discoveries of singers from the past who could really sing Wagner's supposedly impossible operas with vocal purity, ease, legato, clear diction, and style.

Thanks for that wonderful "Abschied" by the young Hotter. Truly moving.

 

Has anyone heard Matthias Goerne sing Wotan? It doesn't seem like the right voice, but I've been reading favorable reviews.