Myto’s release of Luigi Cherubini’s operatic masterpiece Medea from a live recording documenting a 1961 La Scala staged production with a cast including Jon Vickers, Maria Callas, Giulietta Simionato and Nicolai Ghiaurov is a most welcome one. Another important feature of this performance is that it highlights the brilliant conducting of American Thomas Schippers, who succumbed to lung cancer at the age of 47, prematurely ending a career whose loss was especially felt in opera orchestral pits around the world.

Bellini: La sonnambula (1957)

The only Verdi recording in an otherwise admirable but unduly foreshortened discography due to his premature passing in 1956 at age 65, this 1951 I Vespri Siciliani – uncut and issued in very good sound – from Firenze, Italy, is one of the best recordings of this opera available. The cast, including leading baritone Enzo Mascherini (1910-81), a young Maria Callas near the very start of her career, and legendary bass Boris Cristoff, perform under the great conductor Kleiber (father of Carlos) conducting the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra and Chorus.