Search - Thorborg, Gluck, Bizet :: Opera & Song

Kerstin Thorborg

John Austin | Kangaroo Ground, Australia | 07/29/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Preiser historical transfers are amongst the best available. For this
CD Preiser have assembled almost all the commercially available
recordings made by the Swedish contralto Kerstin Thorborg (1896-1970),
including also the Elsa-Ortrud duet from Act II of
"Lohengrin" taken from a 1940 broadcast performance from the
Met, where the Elsa was Elisabeth Rethberg. One can hear the healthy
young voice best in the four arias recorded in Berlin in the early
1930s. Its power and nobility are best conveyed in the series of
Wagner recordings made in New York in the 1940s, items rarely heard as
individual excerpts. Some German lieder are included. As plenty of
"live" recordings prove, both Toscanini and Bruno Walter
made extensive use of this fine Swedish singer, who surely had one of
the most beautiful contralto voices of the century. Biographical and
recording details are included.
"