WAGNER: “Der Fliegende Hollander.” Alfred Muff, Ingrid...

WAGNER: “Der Fliegende Hollander.” Alfred Muff, Ingrid Haubold, Erich Knodt, Peter Seiffert, others; Austrian Radio Symphony, Pinchas Steinberg, conductor. Naxos 8.660025-26. Pinchas Steinberg’s Wagner is a sometime thing, his reading of the overture limp and pallid. Muff is forced to sing “Die Frist is um,” apparently in the crow’s nest of his ship, far away and covered by the orchestra at the crucial points. Haubold is a quavery Senta with hit-or-miss top notes. In the absence of any tension or drive from Steinberg, she and her bass-baritone flounder in the great Act II duet. Knodt is an underpowered, phlegmatic Daland. Seiffert provides a sweet-voiced, intense Erik, the only adequately cast singer in the lot.