The superb heldentenor Bernd Aldenhoff (1908-59) is the focus of this release of the premiere performance in 1956 in Munich of the opera Don Juan de Manara by Henri Tomasi (1901-71), the only currently active and available complete recording of this work in the catalog, and certainly the most important. Sung in German, what it lacks in language authenticity it makes up for in idiomatic diction, as the fine, largely German cast, led by Andre Cluytens, includes Marianne Schech and Paul Kuen, among others. Re-mastered from the original tapes, this is it's first release in any format.

Classical Music

Beethoven: Fidelio, Op. 72

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.

The Austrian composer Julius Bittner (1874-1939) was once, according to historical sources, one of the best known and most performed Austrian opera composers during the first half of the 20th century. + Der Musikant, which premiered at the Vienna State Opera in 1909 with Bruno Walter conducting, is heard here in a 1949 Vienna performance, Felix Prohaska conducting, and starring, among others, baritone Karl-Schimtt-Walter and tenor Günther Treptow, a prominent Wagnerian in the near-aftermath of WWII.

Classical Music

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 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.

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.

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.

Verdi: Aida (1951)

Verdi: Falstaff (Live)

Mozart: Die Zauberflöte, K. 620

Bellini: I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Live)

Triple Feature.