Opera Without Words

Score cover (detail) to the overture to Glinka's Russlan and Ludmilla

Fritz Reiner collection, Rosenthal Archives of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association

Five CSO music directors—Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Muti, Fritz Reiner, Artur Rodzinski, and Sir Georg Solti—lead orchestral excerpts from operas by Beethoven, Copland, Mascagni, Rossini, and Strauss. The program closes with several selections from Wagner’s Ring cycle.

Glinka Overture to Russlan and Ludmilla  
Fritz Reiner
conductor 
1959 (RCA) 

Beethoven Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72b  
Sir Georg Solti conductor 
1972 (London) 

Strauss Waltzes from Der Rosenkavalier 
Fritz Reiner conductor 
1957 (RCA)

Copland Suite from The Tender Land 
Fritz Reiner conductor 
1958
(CSO: The First 100 Years) 

Mascagni Intermezzo from Cavalleria rusticana 
Riccardo Muti conductor 
2017
(CSO Resound) 

Rossini Overture to William Tell 
Fritz Reiner conductor 
1958
(RCA) 

Wagner The Ride of Valkyries from Die Walküre 
Artur Rodzinski conductor
1948
(CSO: The First 100 Years)

Wagner Forest Murmurs from Siegfried
Daniel Barenboim conductor
1991
(RCA) 

Wagner Dawn, Siegfried’s Rhine Journey, and Siegfried’s Death and Funeral March from Götterdämmerung
Daniel Barenboim conductor
1991
(Erato) 

Production
Brian Wise producer
Charlie Post audio engineer
Lisa Simeone host

24-43

CSOradio
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