The most recent recording of the 1916 version of the opera, this recording is generally weaker in casting than previous versions. Nobody is bad, but most minor characters are exceeded in earlier recordings. The nymphs have ensemble problems whilst a fairly unattractive set of comedians suffer from a rather poker-faced lack of impetus in most of their music which must be blamed on Masur. In addition, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is past his prime as the music master - he sings grittily and his top notes, which he barks (nothing new there), are unsteady. Edita Gruberov�, in her second recording of Zerbinetta, is technically dazzling and full of personality as before, but the tone has hardened somewhat and high notes usually begin somewhere rather lower than they ought to.

Having said that, the recording has quite a lot to offer. In the prologue we have a successful composer in Julia Varady. Her accent is odd to say the least - she seems to have acquired a lisp which I haven't picked up in her other recordings, and she tends to omit final consonants, so that sometimes she's virtually incomprehensible. Nevertheless, she makes much of the role, employing her lower register to good effect and supplying plenty of passion. She overshoots the top B flat rather spectacularly during Sein wir wieder gut. Rudolf Asmus offers a major domo quite different from any other. Whereas nearly everyone else plays the role with some degree of sarcasm and a nasal tone, Asmus exhibits bluff geniality. He conveys patient professionalism, while somehow making it clear that he thinks the performers are all rather silly, indulging only in a fleeting moment of Schadenfreude on 'gleichzeitig'. Olaf B�r is my favourite Harlekin, appealing and funny.

Jessye Norman makes a particularly rich-toned, majestic Ariadne. She has no difficulties with the role's lower range, and though stretched at the top, produces glorious sound. Dramatically she is very involved, though in her grief she is noble rather than vulnerable. The Bacchus, Paul Frey, sounds a complete wimp next to her, not helped by the fact that they seem to have placed him in an adjacent room for the whole recording. His voice has been given an odd resonance, presumably to hide the difference in size compared with Norman's. Unfortunately, though he can sing the part, his already rather mushy tenor sounds even less sharply focused as a result.

As with the Levine recording two years earlier, the recorded sound is rather too full to suggest a chamber ensemble. The recording is also occasionally a little foggy as far as the voices are concerned.