Wunderlich goes Tauber - sweet voiced german singer could apparently sing anything and was always waving magic,be it Mozart,Bach or lieder.
On this 1966 album Wunderlich visits famous operetta arias and as usual he approaches them with same seriousness as anything he has ever recorded,making a point that good music has no limits - if he was great in sacral or operatic music,well,he could as well shine in operetta and why not?
Lesser known fact is that Wunderlich actually studied early music (Monteverdi) while singing and playing popular music on the side,to make a living,so this early period obviously shaped his personality in a way that he was able to simply live and breathe music no matter what style,he was simply great singer who could do anything.
This particular recording is delightful in a very much same way Elizabeth Schwarzkopf's operetta album - sparkling like champagne,creamy as any austrian cake, or at least what we imagine Austria is - sweet melodies,very romantic and certainly very hummable,this is light-hearted music for a sunny day (no dark shadows here) and if massive orchestra and wordless choir perhaps makes everything a bit too much like Disney movie, never mind,the idea was to match world-class singer with a seductive,easy listening material and it was done with perfection,in fact I think if Wunderlich was alive today,it could probably not have been done any better - just look at any classical singer recording popular music (traditional folk songs or something like that,yes we are looking at you Bryn Terfel) and no matter what kind of voice they have,the production is more or less very similar to this 1966.recording, except that instead of Vienna Volksoper Choir today's releases would probably add some celebrity duet as extra attraction.
Easy-listening Austrian bon-bon with one of the best voices in the business.
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