Monteverdi: L'Orfeo Wunderlich's first gramophone studio recording. "Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker" (Elbe) festival production. Recording Supervision: Dr. Fred Hamel. Recording Engineer: Harald Baudis. Rec. at Beethovensaal, Hannover, 1955-07-25 - 1955-07-30.

• Cast: Fritz Wunderlich (Apollo/Pastore II/Spirito I), Helmut Krebs (Orfeo), Hanni Mack-Cosack (Euridice), Margot Guilleaume (Musica/Proserpina), Horst Günter (Plutone), Jeanne Deroubaix (Speranza/Messagera), Peter Roth-Ehrang (Caronte), Bernhard Michaelis (Pastore I), Clemens Kaiser-Breme (Pastore III/Spirito II), Peter Offermanns (Pastore IV/Spirito III), Hildegard Wild (Ninfa), Chor der Staatlichen Hochschule für Musik Hamburg (Chorus Master: Adolf Detel), Instrumentalkreis der "Sommerlichen Musiktage Hitzacker 1955" (Hitzacker Summer Festival 1955 Orchestra), cond. August Wenzinger

• David Hamilton in "The Metropolitan Opera Guide to Recorded Opera", New York 1993, in comparison with the 1950 Koch/Discophiles Français recording: "Wenzinger's recording constitutes a step forward. Period instruments are used; though the intonation of the brass sinfonias renders then nearly unlistenable and the string technique remains essentially modern, a start has been made. By now, the refreshing breeze of postwar eighteenth-century performance practice has blown into earlier music, and tempos are lively. As the Messagera, Jeanne Deroubaix's narration is persuasive with tonal and verbal color, and that whole scene has the direct urgency of conversation. The Orfeo, Helmut Krebs, graduating from small parts for Koch, is a 'Bach tenor' of unusual liquidity, who can also muster a touch of metal; not exactly Italianate, he brings to the role some desirable vocal glamour. A small treat is the presence of the 25-year-old Fritz Wunderlich as a Shepherd and Apollo, in the year of his professional debut. (Regrettably, cuts are made in Acts IV and V, presumably in order not to exceed two LPs.)"

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	DG Archiv MONO 453 176-2 Codex (2 CD)
	DG Archiv 14057/58 APM (2 LP)
	DG 270 800-1 (2 LP?)

	DG Archiv 453 172-2 (on "Monteverdi - Masterpieces of early music", 2 CD)
	DG 794 731-1 (4745182) (two excertps on "FW - Arien und Duette") Fritz Wunderlich Discography