Help me out here: that was her 1953 recording? Schwartzkopf/Ackermann 1951. If I’m wrong, please correct me (nicely). Thanks. This present performance: she owns those high B-flats! Wonderful performance.
Hi, my CD of Schwarzkopf/Ackermann has recording date of November 25, 1953. So presumably Della Casa’s was made a little earlier that year (I’ll try to confirm the exact date) and therefore qualifies as the 1st commercial recording, beating Schwarzkopf’s by a whisker! A great, great singer and artist, such as hardly exists anymore. Her “Arabella”…
That would be a great staging, Ariadne singing inside an enormous fishbowl with rocks, seaweed, a castle and a treasure box, with Zerbinetta freely cavorting outside and Bacchus descending on a deus ex machina scooping net.
Basically a lyric soprano or a heavy lyric with good extension and superb tecnique for Mozart. She also sang Salome but wisely stayed away from that role after trying it out.
