Bumbry's über-sensuous Venus [is] a feline Carmen transported to the Horselborg...This performance is all the more treasurable because it is the first of de Los Angeles’s three Wagner roles…to be made available in an ‘authorised’ recording ...There are few recorded Wolframs to match this [Fischer-Dieskau’s] performance...avid collectors will want it.

The sultry, sensuous side of her voice has always been one of Bumbry’s strongest assets, and that makes her a great shout for the goddess of love...Windgassen himself is on very fine form here...Fischer-Dieskau sounds great here, bringing all of his famous smoothness and characteristic importance of the words.

[de los Angeles's contributions] are the main interest here: she is heart-stopping in her pleas for the Thuringian court to forgive the errant antihero in Act II. It’s a rare example of this beloved singer in a complete Wagner role...Sawallisch presides over an orchestra and chorus in peak form. The mono sound can’t compare with Philips’s stereo, but is worth enduring for the angelic Elisabeth.

Sawallisch admirably negotiates the work’s at times deliberately blurred dividing line between spiritual and sexual experience, though he’s not as extreme as some interpreters – ironic given that the Wieland Wagner production from which this was taken was deemed pornographic at the time. The mono sound is warm and crystal clear.