The voice of the Dessau heroic tenor Kammersänger Dr Horst Wolf (1894-1980) is considered "lost". No professional recordings of this singer are known today, who was associated with the Dessau Theatre for over a quarter of a century, of which he became an honorary member when he retired in 1957, and who sang at the state operas in Dresden, Munich, Berlin and Vienna as well as at almost all major opera houses in Germany, but also abroad. There are essentially two reasons for this gap in the records: firstly, he had an aversion to recordings in the "sterile" studio throughout his life and secondly, the radio recordings with his voice have been lost.

Nevertheless, at the presentation of his memoirs under the title The Wolf's Tale in 2020 in the Marienkirche in Dessau, a recording was presented: Riccardo's Scene and Romance from Un ballo in maschera by Giuseppe Verdi. The sound of the voice of the heroic tenor Dr Horst Wolf was rightly considered a minor sensation at the time. It is no less sensational that, in addition to this piece, which has been preserved through a chain of coincidences, the present 5-CD box contains numerous recordings of the singer from the 1950s.

In the Dessau Theatre, he had excerpts from operas in which he took part, mostly Wagner operas, recorded. Most of the tapes were destroyed in a house fire in January 1980, but several dozen were salvaged from the burned-out ruins. However, the tapes had suffered considerable fire, soot and water damage. Many of these damaged tapes, which are over half a century old, could not be saved. But at least some of them have now been restored and made audible in a self-sacrificing, subtle restoration work by Christian Zwarg, Berlin.

Now available on a unique 5-CD set at a special price are the restored recordings. In addition to Dr Horst Wolf, other singers from the Dessau Theatre can be heard in them, including many whose voices are rarely or not at all available on recordings. The booklet provides the historical context and also explains the procedure for the difficult restoration.