Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro, K. 492

This live La Forza del Destino by Giuseppe Verdi from Firenze, Italy in June 1956 stars a young and dynamic tenor Giuseppe di Stefano near the beginning of a brilliant, decades-long stage career and Renata Tebaldi, a lyric soprano blessed with one of the most gorgeous and forthright voices in 20th century opera, and in all likelihood in operatic history. The mezzo-soprano Fedora Barbieri is always a welcome presence in Italian opera recordings of this period. Gabriele Santini conducts the Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Comunale di Firenze.

Wagner: Lohengrin (Sung in Italian)

Wagner: Götterdämmerung, Act III (Live)

Wagner: The Flying Dutchman, WWV 63

Bellini: La sonnambula (1955)

Less well remembered by the general, non-cognoscenti opera admirer, Ettore Bastianini (1922-67) was nonetheless among the finest, busiest and most beloved Italian bass-baritones of the 1950s. This now legendary 1959 studio performance of Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor finds him in the company of the young, rising star soprano of the opera world at that time, Renata Scotto, and tenor Giuseppe di Stefano. The under-appreciated Nino Sanzogno (1911-83) leads the La Scala, Milan Orchestra and Chorus.

Classical Music

This live recording of Wagner’s great opera Tristan und Isolde was recorded in August of 1958.; Wolfgang Windgassen, who champions the role of Tristan, was known for his powerful voice and successful performances in Wagner operas. He is often considered the most accomplished Wagner tenor of the twentieth century.; Swedish soprano Birgit Nilsson was also a Wagner specialist, along with works from Strauss. Her voice is remembered for its force and brilliance in the upper register.

Even before Rossini, Giovanni Paisiello was the first composer of the Libretto for The Barber of Seville. It is lovely to compare both versions, however, this release is unique in that it was the work’s first release on any format, and is still regarded as the best. Legendary Italian baritone Ettore Bastianini stars as Figaro. The rest of the cast is also incredible, making this release even more attractive to opera connoisseurs. The production was recorded at the Piccolo Teatro di Musica in March of 1953.

Often released in corrupted form, this 1952 performance, without interpolation, of Verdi’s Macbeth features Maria Callas at the near start of her quarter-century professional career as Lady Macbeth, and Enzo Mascherini, generally forgotten now except to the cognoscenti who know him as one of his era’s leading Italian baritones, in the title role. The Orchestra and Chorus of the La Scala, Milan is led by Victor de Sabata, an utterly brilliant conductor who left far to few recordings behind, but more than enough to judge to his true genius.

The Austrian-born composer Egon Wellesz (1885-1974) is a barely recognized figure in the history of western music. + For his rarely heard two-act Die Bakchantinnen, one of his half-dozen operas, Wellesz wrote his own libretto based on the ancient Greek play The Bacchae of Euripides. + This Vienna, 1960 performance, conducted by Mitiades Caridis features at least two well-known singers, the baritone Paul Schöffler and the tenor Fritz Uhl. + A most enticing item for the opera-collecting completist.

One of Giuseppe Verdi's most dramatic, profound and moving works, the Requiem (1874) was written in heartfelt response to the passing of poet, novelist and Italian patriot Alessandro Manzoni in 1873. This superb reading, witnessed and recorded in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1960 under the masterful and knowing direction of Carlo Maria Giulini, features the then relativity new Philharmonia Orchestra (founded 1945) and Chorus, with a cast of vocal soloists that featured, on the women's side, Joan Sutherland and Fiorenza Cossotto, Luigi Ottolini and the recently deceased Ivo Vinco on the men's.

The Italian composer Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842) isn’t much remembered today, though a not inconsiderable number of recordings are making known his instrumental, vocal and, most significantly, his operatic works that, historically, carry the most weight and are his most significant contribution to music. Long before re-discovery however, came this 1960 Elisa, a two-act opéra comique that had its premiere in Paris in 1794, a time of much turmoil in that city. An all-Italian cast, conductor, orchestra and locale feature here, with Gabriela Tucci and Gianni Raimondi assuming the lead roles.

This Myto release of Gaetano Donizetti’s repertoire staple opera ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ with its famed “mad scene” features, among others, a stellar trio of singers at or near their respective vocal primes in Renata Scotto, Alfredo Kraus and Sesto Bruscantini. + This live recording from July, 1963 finds distinguished conductor Bruno Rigacci, a musician with over 100 operas in his repertoire, directing the proceedings.

Jussi Björling (1911-60), the great Swedish tenor who was to meet his tragic and untimely end only a year after this performance, is in his usual splendid form – captured in superb sound – on the stage of the Metroploitan Opera in NYC in this performance of Charles Gounod’s Faust in the title role. Joined on stage by soprano Elisabeth Söderström as Maguerite and Cesare Siepi as Mephistopheles, this magical performance is led from the pit by American conductor and Julliard School stalwart, Jean Morel (1903-75).

The child prodigy Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) composed Die Todt Stadt to a libretto by Paul Schott (the name in point of fact a pseudonym for the composer and his father, Julius) in the late 1910s, its premier coming in 1920. Its success was tremendous but brief, making it to NYC two years later but rarely making its way to the stage in the ensuing years and decades. This BRSO, Munich 1952 historic performance captures a nearly all-German cast headed by Maud Cunitz and Karl Friedrich.

This by now and long-legendary 1953 live recording of Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore features a cast, conductor and orchestra that makes it difficult to imagine better. Led by Maria Callas and Carlo Tagliabue as Leonora and Count di Luna, the cast also features Ebe Stignani, Gino Penno and Giuseppe Modesti, among others. The legendary conductor Antonino Votto, often partnered with Ms. Callas, in this period, leads the Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala, Milan, in this gripping, ever-popular operatic drama.

The Giacomo Puccini opera Suor Angelica is presented on this new release by MYTO Historical. Recorded on December 23, 1951, this recording features the Wiener Symphoniker conducted by Wilhelm Loibner. Sena Jurinac and Hilde Rossel-Majdan, two of the greatest Mozart singers of the 20th century, are joined by Ilona Steingruber to headline this outstanding cast.

The German composer Albert Lortzing’s (“Undine”) (1801-51) one-act comic opera “Die Opernprobe oder Die vornehmen Dilettanten” received its first performance in the year of Lortzing’s death. + This Vienna, 1953 performance of this rarely heard opera features famed Bach interpreter Karl Richter conducting an echt-Viennese performance of this little gem of a work.

Beethoven: Fidelio, Op. 72

Franz Schubert's rarely performed opera, more appropriately dubbed a Singspiel, Fierrabras, is heard here in a fine-sounding, well-sung 1959 Bern, Switzerland radio broadcast concert performance that features the one and only Fritz Wunderlich in the leading role. One of Myto's bestselling titles despite the lack of name recognition of nearly every other cast member, this recording of Fierrebras returns to the marketplace where its competition is slight and interest in anything Schubert is and will always remain high.