Wagner: Das Rheingold, WWV 86a (Recorded 1952) [Live]

Richard Strauss’ rarely recorded one act opera Daphne is based loosely on the eponymously named character from Ovid's Metamorphoses and was dedicated by Strauss to the conductor Karl Böhm. Considered legendary by many, this 1944 recording is finally re-issued featuring Böhm conducting the Vienna Philharmonic with singers Herbert Alsen, Maria Reining, Anton Dermota, Karl Friedrich during a time in history arguably not conducive for opera productions and all the more stirring for having occurred.

In addition to many non-operatic compositions, he composed in all about a dozen operas, and didn’t lack for success in his lifetime, but today it is Francesca di Rimini almost alone for which Riccardo Zandonai (1883-1944) is best remembered internationally. This June, 1959 La Scala performance of a work with much to recommend in it has been considered by some in the critical establishment as the best Francesca on record. Conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni, the cast is headlined by the dynamic, moving and volatile Magda Olivero – still with us at 104 years old! - in the title role.

Famous for her Wagner recordings as Tosca, Regine Crespin is featured on this historical recording. This recording was taken on May 18, 1961 at the Covent Garden London. Along with the Wagner diva, the Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House performs here, conducted by Edward Downes.

Madama Butterfly (Recorded Live 1959)

Puccini: La bohème (Recorded Live 1961)

This Berlin, 1960 performance of Giacomo Puccini's La Boheme is a true collector's item, in as much as it follows a practice little employed in the 21st c., but still in active if already declining use in the middle of the last century, that of singing an opera in a language other that in which it was written, that being German here rather than Italian. The casting however, is imposing by any contemporary standard, with Pilar Lorengar, Rita Streich, S�ndor K�nya and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the lead roles. Albert Erede leads the Staatskapelle Dresden.

One of the prolific Gaetano Donizetti’s lesser-produced masterworks, Poliuto, originally banned from production in Italy in the late 1830s only to return a decade in a French translation, is a story of religious persecution, punishment and marital faithfulness. This live, Antonino Votti conducted 1960 La Scala, Milan performance’s eye-watering, jealousy-inducing cast features Maria Callas, Ettore Bastianini in the vocal prime of his foreshortened career, Franco Corelli and Nicola Zaccaria. Returning to the active catalog, this release is a direct transfer from the master tapes.

Orff: Oedipus der Tyrann

Bellini: Norma (1950)

Bellini: Norma [1958]

Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma is one of the great tragic, lyric operas of all-time, a constant presence on the world’s great opera stages and in the repertoire of the world’s finest sopranos. This 1952 Covent Garden, London live recording, re-mastered directly from the broadcast acetates without any filtering or cuts, will leave one wishing they were there to experience it in the moment. Two young, future divas, Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland, feature alongside the wonderful mezzo Ebe Stignani for the women’s team, to be combined with Mirto Picchi, Giacomo Vaghi and Paul Asciak for the men’s.

When an artist, through whatever means, becomes a transcendent artistic figure, he or she becomes the object of extreme devotion. In and beyond the operatic world, that person is Maria Callas, and those devoted to her, and they are legion, want nothing less than to hear every recorded note she sang, and are fortunate enough to be able to do so. The start of her 25 years of worldwide stardom is not far in the future as you listen to her sing the role Abigalle in Verdi's Nabucco in this 1949 live performance from the Teatro di San Carlo with conductor Vittorio Gui, one of her early champions.

Verdi: Nabucco (Recorded Live 1959)

Questions of editions and orchestration aside, Modest Mussorgsky's penetrating, powerful and potent four-act Boris Godunov, arguably the greatest Russian opera of the 19th c., requires no less than a figure of towering stature to portray this late 16th - early 17th c. Russian Czar. This 1958 Covent Garden performance led by Czech conductor Rafael Kubelik, in his last year as the Royal Opera House music director, has such a figure in Boris Christoff, a bass of considerable vocal and acting talent. Josephine Veasey, Geraint Evans and Regina Resnik, among other cast members, prove no less formidable.