We responded basically positively to this classic recording, Paul, and we also reacted to the employment of a second cast of actors for the speaking parts. You write: "Roland Grames in the Metropolitan Opera Guide suggests that the distinguished baritone did indeed supply his own spoken contributions. I must admit that the actual sound does not seem to me to justify such an assumption, but I may well be wrong." No, you are quite right. I mentioned in my review that the speaking voice belongs to Walter Bluhm and Haefliger's counterpart is Sebastian Fischer. I happen to own a copy of the DG catalogue from 1960, and there all the participants are listed, also the speakers. This was a bad habit that DG employed also in the contemporary recording of Die Entführung aus dem Serail but later abandoned. In the somewhat later recording of Fidelio, also under Fricsay, all the singers also speak their parts.