Featuring a front-line cast (Rysanek, Frick, Suthaus, Hotter, Nilsson, etc...) that sends Wagner aficionados into states of reverie at the prospect of listening once again to the authoritative, superlative singing casts one could assemble in the 1950's, this amazing performance of the second opera in the "Nibelungen" tetralogy also proves that conductor Herbert von Karajan live was, like the singers, in a class of his own in the 1950's as well. His few surviving Wagner recordings from this period, like this La Scala 1958 Die W�lkure, are a must for every Wagner connoisseur.

Bellini: Norma [1958]

Bellini: La sonnambula (1957)

Verdi: Aida

Verdi: La forza del destino

Glinka: Zhizn' za tsarya (A Life for the Tsar) (1954)

AIDA: WELITSCH-VINAY-HARSHAW-M

Bellini: I puritani (Recorded Live 1961)

Lanza, Yeend & Ormandy at Hollywood Bowl (Recorded Live 1947

Strauss: Salome, Op. 54, TrV 215 (Live)

Puccini: La rondine (1961)

Donizetti: Anna Bolena

Wagner: Die Walküre, WWV 86b (Live)

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.

Is this March 1958, Lisbon La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi the best on record? Having in your cast, at that time, the role of Alfredo Germont sung by the great and classy tenor Alfredo Kraus surely enhances a recording's prospects toward that nomination. With Maria Callas as Violetta and Mario Sereni as Giorgio Germont, and also including the complete Radio Announcement which is missing on all other releases of this performance, and in excellent sound due to direct master tape transfers, it surely ranks high.

DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG

Verdi: La battaglia di Legnano (Recorded 1959) [Live]

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.

AIDA - CIGNA, CASTAGNA, MARTIN

Wagner: Siegfried, WWV 86C

UN BALLO IN MASCHERA: NELLI-PE

Verdi: Aida

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, TH 5 (Recorded 1954)

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, TH 5 (Sung in Italian) [

Richard Strauss: Elektra, Op. 58, TrV 223 (Recorded 1957) [L