The Gypsy Baron (Der Zigeunerbaron)
Recorded 18th-21st, 26th, 28th and 31st May, and 25th September, 1954 in Kingsway Hall, London
Barinkay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Nicolai Gedda
Saffi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Zsupán . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . Erich Kunz
Arsena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Erika Köth
Czipra . . . . . . . . . . . Gertrude Burgsthaler-Schuster
Mirabella . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Monica Sinclair
Count Homonay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hermann Prey
Philharmonia Chorus and Orchestra
Otto Ackermann
Restoration engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn
Second in popularity only to Die Fledermaus, Strauss’s The Gypsy Baron is a colourful comic opera whose vividly drawn characters include a gypsy girl who turns out to be a Turkish Pasha’s daughter, a fortune-telling Romany queen, an exiled landowner, ridiculous local dignitaries, hussars and, inevitably, a band of gypsies.
Embroiling themselves in the entertainingly convoluted plot, the stellar cast of this 1954 London recording includes Gedda, Prey and Sinclair, still in their twenties, and Schwarzkopf, yet to turn forty and at her peak.
“Schwarzkopf at her most radiant and sparkling, Gedda producing the most beguiling tone, and strong support from Erich Kunz and others. As AML observed discussing Eine Nacht In Venedig, "Such was the sheer flair with which Walter Legge, his soloists, chorus, orchestra and conductor completed these recordings" that any reservations tend to be swept aside. Schwarzkopf's "magnetic authority, both tender and commanding" (EG) in Der Zigeunerbaron is matched by Erich Kunz ("beyond praise") and Ackermann "shows the most sensitive feeling for the ebb and flow of gypsy rhythms".” Gramophone
