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Title: Stellar Lohengrin
Review: I am a nut who owns 3 Lohengrins (Abbado,Solti,Davis) and have seen it with Abbado/Domingo/Studer at the Vienna State Opera a few years back. I really like Ben Heppner, his german is way better than Domingo's whose german makes me cringe. His voice is very powerful, whereas maybe not quite as luscious as Domingo's voice was back then. Sharon Sweet is a pretty good Elsa, although a tad shrill at times (prefer Studer and Norman). Marton is dramatically good but her voice is a bit too piercing. I like the pace of Davis' conducting and the lush orchestra sound. Sergei Leiferkus really bugs me with his "german" and his "S"s are awful. For the orchestra part I go with the Vienna PO (coincidentally I am Viennese-born, living in San Diego, CA now) but the Bavarians are definitely up to task.
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