Verdi: Simon Boccanegra.(Sound Recording Review)

[] Janowitz, Sjostedt; Wachter, Cossutta, Ghiaurov, Kerns, Jungwirth, Guggia; Orchestra and Chorus of the Vienna State Opera, Krips. No text. Myto 2 MCD 022.259

When one thinks of Josef Krips and the Vienna Opera, one doesn't automatically think of Verdi. This splendid recording, a memento of a live performance, could change that.

An embattled old-school maestro for all reasons and all seasons, Krips may have languished in the Austrian shadows of Herbert von Karajan and Karl Bohm. Portly and professorial, he didn't cut a romantic figure on the podium. Some contemporaries in political Vienna didn't exactly regret his having been banished by the Nazis. But Krips, a quintessential survivor, was largely responsible for the resurgence of the Staatsoper after the war, and he deserved central credit for building an ensemble that came to define the Mozartean gold standard.

When he turned lovingly to Simon Boccanegra in 1969, he dared turn his back on Franz Werfel's translation, which had become more or less habitual on Germanic stages. Although his cast enlisted only one echt-Italian principal, the tone of Krips's performance was almost invariably authentic. Equally sensitive to dynamic nuance and emotional surge, he proved himself a flexible master of the long line. He wasn't afraid to slow down when the drama became intimate or ...