Richard Wattenbarger

I never have understood the enthusiasm that exists in some quarters for Sinopoli's recording of Tannhäuser.  Yeah, okay, you get Domingo and Salminen, but you also get Sinopoli.  His reading a rather stodgy, even tedious affair, wholly unsuitable to the opera's subject matter.  If ever a recording needed Viagra, this is it.

Then there's the Solti recording: would someone issue a restraining order for this maniac, please?  (Wasn't it Walter Legge who described Solti's conducting of Wagner as "an orgasm in every bar?")