Music: Classical Records

Strauss: Die Fledermaus (Hilde Gueden, Erika Köth, Regina Resnik, Giuseppe Zampiere; the Vienna Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan; London, 3 LPs). This otherwise fine recording of the imperishable operetta classic offers a strange side effect. One moment, the listener is tapping his feet to the most tap-pable of old Viennese waltzes; the next, he is caught up in the English rhymes of I Could Have Danced All Night, sung by Birgit Nilsson, of all people, in ponderous and chesty style. In the midst of the second act party scene, the producers have inserted...