Strauss: Die Agyptische Helena

Leonie Rysanek was one of the greatest Wagner-and-Strauss sopranos of recent times and many of her recordings are considered definitive. Certainly that description applies to this legendary performance, which most critics agree has never been surpassed. This is the only available recording of Strauss’s 1933 revised version of the opera, which has some significant changes in Act II. All other recordings are of the 1928 original. Strauss himself preferred the revised version! Long one of Strauss’s least-performed operas, partly because of the extraordinary staging demands—including a singing seashell (!)—The Egyptian Helen has recently had a great surge in popularity, especially after an acclaimed Metropolitan Opera production. The collaboration of composer Richard Strauss and librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal was one of the greatest in music history, along with that of Mozart and Da Ponte, and out of their six collaborations, Hofmannsthal himself considered this his best text. Live performance, Monaco, August 10, 1956.