Release date: 04-05-2006 (recorded live at th 1955 Bayreuth festival)

2006 decca limited 3- LP set edition  pressed on 180gram Virgin VINYL, =THE LOST RING CYCLE – NOW AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME EVE
The most coveted performance of Wagner's legendary epic Ring Cycle was in fact recorded by Decca in Stereo live at the 1955 Bayreuth Festival. But until now, that lost performance has remained but a memory.
Testament will issue the first-ever stereo recording of The Ring Cycle
with Hans Hotter, Astrid Varnay and Wolfgang Windgassen
Tracks:
    1.       Prelude
    2.       Scene One
    3.       Scene Two (beginning)
    4.       Scene Two (concluded)
    5.       Scene Three (beginning)
    6.       Scene Three (conclusion)
    7.       Scene Four (beginning)
    8.       Scene Four (conclusion)
In January 2006 Testament will release a new Siegfried, the first instalment of a 'lost' Ring recorded at the Bayreuth Festival in 1955. Thrillingly conducted by Joseph Keilberth (called by Astrid Varnay "a conductor with so much love, who was always there for you"), the cycle provides the opportunity to hear complete for the first time on commercial release the definitive performances of Hans Hotter (Wotan/Wanderer), Astrid Varnay (Brünnhilde), Ramon Vinay (Siegmund), Josef Greindl (Hagen) and Paul Kuen (Mime), in addition to the much-loved Siegfried of Wolfgang Windgassen, here heard in his prime.
   These 'live' Bayreuth performances were taped by a Decca team led by Peter Andry and including the noted engineers Kenneth Wilkinson and Roy Wallace, with Gordon Parry as assistant. Using a new six-channel mixer designed by Wallace, the team made both stereo and mono recordings of each opera. Three microphones were placed in the sunken orchestra pit and three hung from a lighting bridge about 20 feet above the stage. "This was brilliant; it worked beautifully", remembers Wallace. The company prepared for an expected release, but John Culshaw, recently returned to Decca, vetoed the project. He disliked 'live' recordings and already had plans for a studio Ring with Solti which began four years later.
   Decca's recording vividly captures in wonderful stereo sound the unique acoustic and stage/pit balance of the Bayreuth Festival theatre with its sunken orchestra, in addition to preserving the leading singers from a Wagnerian golden age in 'live' performance.