Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

What the Amazon.com reviewer said about "Wagner served in bleeding chunks" is absolutely right. Now let's "dissect" that comment, shall we? Suppose you wanted to buy COMPLETE versions of all the operas represented on this double-CD. It would cost a few hundred dollars, right? When faced with that argument, this CD, for those who only want the best, makes sense. However, suppose you decided to read Charles Dickens the same way? A couple chapters out of A Tale of Two Cities, maybe 3 from Oliver Twist, a half dozen each from Great Expectations and David Copperfield (sort of equivalent to Der Ring), and then a few pages ripped out of Bleak House. What would you have? Certainly great writing, but no context. The writing would prove unfulfilling and deeply lacking, certainly a disappointing choice. Well, this "Essential Wagner Collection" is even worse. Not only does it slice and dice story lines, but it often doesn't even give you entire scenes; artistic glory and achievement is tossed aside in favor of a sloppy fade-out. And this isn't the exception, it's the rule. Out of the 27 tracks on this double-CD, an egregious 19 are listed (covertly, and in teeny tiny letters) as "extract"s, often with unsettling fades and cuts on both ends. And of the recordings that aren't "extract"s, the highly-touted Ride of the Valkries just doesn't deliver (at least, not in Antal Dorati's sloppy reading of it), and the magnificent version of Siegfried's Funeral March is ruined by being chopped off in the worst of places. I really regret buying this CD. All in all, it adds up to a musical Frankenstein; made of the choicest parts, but hideous when stitched together in such a haphazard and disrespectful way.