WAGNER: OPERAS - Rudolf Schock (10 CDs)

The 100th anniversary of the birth of the celebrated German tenor Rudolf Schock falls in September 2015 and the Documents label marks it with another 10-CD box set, this time featuring the singer in three complete operas by Wagner, Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Der fliegende Holländer, with an added bonus of excerpts from Das Rheingold.

Rudolf Schock was not a Wagner tenor in the usual sense. Central to his stage successes were Mozart's operas as well as those of Verdi and Puccini and a few French composers. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, Wieland Wagner invited him to the Bayreuth Festival to sing one of the finest roles Wagner wrote for the tenor voice: the young knight Walther von Stolzing in Die Meistersinger. Schock was at the peak of his popularity and his appearance at Bayreuth ensured the 1959 festival attracted the greatest possible degree of notice.

Schock had however already appeared at Bayreuth: as a choirboy during the famous 1936 festival. He sang the title role in Lohengrin (the Swan Knight) at the Brunswick, Hamburg, and Bremen opera houses in 1957 and 1959. One of his earliest roles was Froh in Das Rheingold at Duisburg in 1936 though the recording here dates from 1952. He studied the role of Erik (Der Fliegende Holländer) only for LP in 1960, the all-star recording (with Gottlob Frick, Marianne Schech, Sieglinde Wagner, Fritz Wunderlich and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau) in this box.

The story of Rudolf Schock's life - beginning in 1915 in a working-class quarter of Duisburg and the overwhelming successes he achieved through tireless effort - has often been told. Perpetuating the memory of one of the most versatile 20th century singers in Germany is, on the other hand, something only the recordings he left to posterity can do.

DER FLIGENDE HOLLANDER

Daland Gottlob Frick, Senta Marianne Schech, Erik Rudolf Schock, Mary Sieglinde Wagner, Steurmann Fritz Wunderlich, Hollander Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin, conductor Franz Konwitschny (1901-1962).

LOHENGRIN

Heinrich Gottlob Frick. Lohengrin Rudolf Schock. Elsa Maud Cunitz. Telramund Josef Metternich. Ortrud Margarete Klose. Chor und Sinfonie orchester des Nordwestdeutschen Rundfunks, Hamburg. Mannerchor des Nordwestdeutschen Rundfunks Koln. Conductor Wilhelm Schuchter. July 5-12, 1953.

DIE MEISTERSINGERS VON NURNBERG

DAS RHEINGOLD: Scene 2 and Scene 4. (Excerpts)

Wotan Franz, Fricka Res Fischer, Freia Lore Hoffmann, Froh Rudolf Schock, Donner Metternich, Loge Windgassen, Erda Res Fischer, Fasolt, Frick, Fafner, Greindl. Sinonieorchestra des Nordwestdeutschen rundfunks, Hamburg. Cond Schuchter. October 7th 1952.