APPENDIX Historical Recordings of Lehar Operetta Excerpts, performed by Legendary SingersProducer and Audio Restoration Engineers Mark Obert-Thorn (opera), Ward Marston (appendix)A companion to our acclaimed March release of Lehár’s The Merry Widow comes in the form of this fabulous 1953 recording of The Land of Smiles featuring the same cast, conductor and production team. Made in 1953, this was the first complete recording of The Land of Smiles, of which The Gramophone wrote, the following year `The principals all excel in sentiment. [Schwarzkopf offers] perfection of performance … Loose is the ideal soubrette … Gedda sounds young and caressing … Kunz’s charm … and Kraus imparts the right touch of sternness. The orchestral playing is pointed and colourful´. The recording’s producer Walter Legge had originally wanted Karajan as conductor for his series of operetta recordings but he declined, so Legge turned to the Swiss-naturalised Otto Ackermann (1909-1960) who proved to be an outstanding interpreter. The appendix to the complete recordings offers a number of rarities, the names of some of the performers well known, others now almost forgotten Austrian-born soprano Irene Eisinger, American-born soprano Dusolina Giannini, German soprano Lotte Lehmann, soprano and actress Jarmila Novotná, Esther Rethy, Rumanian tenor Leonardo Aramesco, tenor Rupert Glawitsch, Danish tenor Helge Rosvaenge, Austrian-born tenor Richard Tauber and Belgian-born tenor Marcel Wittrisch. Also in the appendix are two recordings of Schwarzkopf’s voice made at the start of her career. - `[I felt] awe and wonder listening to Naxos’ marvellous new transfer of EMI’s classic The Merry Widow of 1953. … Legge was a perfectionist and this set stands as a memorial to a man who wouldn’t compromise, demanded the best, and gets it here from some of the finest Viennese singers of the day. … What a feast for a fiver.´ The Mail on Sunday on 8111007