Wolfgang Windgassen

Witty, fun, intoxicating film of Johann Strauss II's popular operetta, based on a stage production from Vienna State Opera; this is a showcase for the entire cast, but most especially Eberhard Wächter as the insufferably boorish Gabriel Eisenstein, and Gundula Janowitz as his long-suffering wife. Open the champagne, have yourself some torte, and enjoy this delectable comedy from Vienna.

On their hike, the two friends Hans and Richard arrive in the Black Forest village of Sankt Christoph on the eve of St. Cecilia's Day, where they find accommodation in the house of the respected cathedral choirmaster Blasius Römer. There they meet his employee Bärbele, who is in love with Blasius Römer. A little later, the attractive Malwine arrives in the village from Berlin and sets her sights on Hans. However, Malwine is rejected by Hans on the evening of the Cäcilienfest dance, who decides in favor of Bärbele, who is shunned by the locals as the niece of the 'Muhme', a woman known as a 'witch'.

Watching the Vienna Philharmonic, Georg Solti, and a stellar cast record Wagner's immense Götterdämmerung for Decca in the fall of 1964 provides a thousand lessons in the art of working under pressure. For this classic documentary, The Golden Ring, a BBC camera crew eavesdropped as producer John Culshaw guided his engineering team through tricky technical maneuvers far removed from the relative ease of modern digital editing. What utter concentration and focus Birgit Nilsson, Wolfgang Windgassen, Gottlob Frick, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau bring to their collective and individual singing! Solti, for his part, oozes energy and exactitude as he pleads for greater precision and frets over details in the car en route to the sessions.

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