# Your favorite desert island live opera performance



## operashoppejim (Aug 20, 2013)

I am curious to hear what everyone's top desert island choice live performance would be. As good as commercial recordings can be, they are more often than not sterile and bloodless because anything the singers of engineer don't like can be redone as many times as is necessary to get a perfect take. Live performances show the true singer and can quickly reveal to the listener whose great and who is not, no one can fake a live performance. 

My desert island choice would be the 1959 La Scala broadast of Zandonai's magnificent Francesca da Rimini with the magnificent Magda Olivero and the heroic and powerful Mario Del Monaco. I have a huge shop and close to a thousand live performances from the 1930s to the present and i would give them all up for this one if I had to do so.

So that's mine, what's yours? :tiphat:


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

A radio broadcast was made in 1935 of a "live" performance of Verdi's "La Traviata".
Violetta was Rosa Ponselle, Alfredo was Frederick Jagel and Giorgio Germont was Lawrence Tibbett.
The recording was issued on LP,the sound is murky and distorts but enough of the legendary Violetta can be heard.
Walter Legge said: ..her legato was perfect,utterly seamless,sinuos,exquisitely modulated and with a control of breath that leaves only the listener breathless in wonder".
Can you imagine being present !!


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

The only "live" opera CD recording I currently own is a Metropolitan Opera broadcast performance of TOSCA from 1962, with Leontyne Price, Franco Corelli, and Cornell MacNeil. I like it a lot but wouldn't say it's a "desert island disc." So instead, I'll go for a DVD: the 1995 Houston Grand Opera performance of LA CENERENTOLA with Cecilia Bartoli, Raul Gimenez, Enzo Dara, Alessandro Corbelli, and Michele Pertusi, with Bruno Campanella conducting.


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

moody said:


> A radio broadcast was made in 1935 of a "live" performance of Verdi's "La Traviata".
> Violetta was Rosa Ponselle, Alfredo was Frederick Jagel and Giorgio Germont was Lawrence Tibbett.
> The recording was issued on LP,the sound is murky and distorts but enough of the legendary Violetta can be heard.
> Walter Legge said: ..her legato was perfect,utterly seamless,sinuos,exquisitely modulated and with a control of breath that leaves only the listener breathless in wonder".
> Can you imagine being present !!


I listened to the Violetta/Germont duet from this performance on Youtube, because Tibbett and Ponselle are two of my favorites from the pre-LP era. It was fabulous, and next I'll have to look into downloading at least the second act from Amazon (you can purchase it act by act).


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## operashoppejim (Aug 20, 2013)

*I have that performance and Ponselle makes Violetta's music sound easy.*



moody said:


> A radio broadcast was made in 1935 of a "live" performance of Verdi's "La Traviata".
> Violetta was Rosa Ponselle, Alfredo was Frederick Jagel and Giorgio Germont was Lawrence Tibbett.
> The recording was issued on LP,the sound is murky and distorts but enough of the legendary Violetta can be heard.
> Walter Legge said: ..her legato was perfect,utterly seamless,sinuos,exquisitely modulated and with a control of breath that leaves only the listener breathless in wonder".
> Can you imagine being present !!


Ponselle makes everything she sings sound easy. Her Carmen broadcasts are incredible, she doesn't even break a sweat. The excerpts from Don Giovanni are amazing and rare because she never recorded them commercially. There are some operas from European houses with amazing singers and some memorable performances. It is worth investigating. Let me know if you want some suggestions. Ponselle, however was the greatest American soprano since the legendary Lillian Nordica.


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## operashoppejim (Aug 20, 2013)

*Bartoli's Norma*

I just received two different performances of Norma with Bartoli and although she sings the music beautifully, her excessive mannerisms drive me nuts! Her excessive rolling of her r's is not only distracting and artificial but stylistically very poor. Does that bad habit drive anyone else crazy too?


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

Easy choice for me.......

http://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Marria...051778&sr=8-4&keywords=marriage+of+figaro+dvd


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Something with a particularly voracious tomato-throwing Scala crowd, please.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

operashoppejim said:


> I just received two different performances of Norma with Bartoli and although she sings the music beautifully, her excessive mannerisms drive me nuts! Her excessive rolling of her r's is not only distracting and artificial but stylistically very poor. Does that bad habit drive anyone else crazy too?


Yes, I can't take Bartoli at all.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

The first performance of the completed _Lulu_, back in 1979.






Focusing on singer's performance, I also have a soft spot for several Traviatas, including the above recording by Ponselle, and also Olivero, but my favorite live Traviata is this one from Lisbon, with Callas and Kraus.


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## Pip (Aug 16, 2013)

My favourite Meistersinger of all - Bayreuth Festival 24th July 1956 conducted by Andre Cluytens.

Hans Sachs,	Hans Hotter

Veit Pogner, Josef Greindl

Sixtus Beckmesser	Karl Schmitt-Walter

Fritz Kothner,	Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

Walther von Stolzing	Wolfgang Windgassen

David, Gerhard Stolze

Eva, Gré Brouwenstein 

Magdalene,	Georgine von Milinkovic

or my favourite Don Carlo of all
ROH Covent Garden 12 may 1958 conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini

Don Carlo Jon Vickers
Posa Tito Gobbi
Philip II Boris Cristoff
Elizabeth Gre Brouwenstein
Eboli Fedora Barbieri


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Pip said:


> My favourite Meistersinger of all - Bayreuth Festival 24th July 1956 conducted by Andre Cluytens.
> 
> Hans Sachs,	Hans Hotter
> 
> ...


I was at that "Don Carlo" .I was on leave from the army and some of my brother's friends had a spare ticket so I joined them---thank goodness I did !!


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## operashoppejim (Aug 20, 2013)

The most outrageous performance I have is a 1982 Forza Del Destino from [of all places] Berlin! The singers are Varady and Merighi and they are superb but the audience goes wild they boo, scream, interrupt the music and laugh during Pace, Pace. it seems that the production like so many idiotic productions today was horrendous and ridiculous, and the poor singers took the brunt of the audiences ire!


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## operashoppejim (Aug 20, 2013)

Yes, Callas was truly a tour-de-forse in everything she sang. many people did not like her voice, I personally loved it and loved everything she sang. Olivero is in a class by herself, her voice, again, is not to everyone's liking, but having seen her live many times, I can tell you you never forget a performance she did, i can still see and everything in my mind she did, even to this day. At the age of 103 now, the lady is a marvel, she is in good health and very lucid!

Ponselle, on the other hand, is in a class by herself. her voice, technique, and passion are totally amazing. There has not been, nor is there likely to be, another like her, especially considering today's motley array of "stars"!


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

operashoppejim said:


> I just received two different performances of Norma with Bartoli and although she sings the music beautifully, her excessive mannerisms drive me nuts! Her excessive rolling of her r's is not only distracting and artificial but stylistically very poor. Does that bad habit drive anyone else crazy too?


It doesn't bother me.

What I've noticed is that she has an unusual way of pronouncing her "e's" -- like, for example, the "e" in the word "re" in _La Cenerentola_'s "Una volta c'er'un re." Bartoli is from Rome, so I assume it's her Roman accent (?) At any rate, I've never really been one to complain about what other people call a singer's "mannerisms." I don't even mind Bartoli's way of articulating each note in the coloratura passages, rather than singing them smoothly. I wouldn't want every singer to sing them like that, but I believe it lends a certain excitement to Bartoli's singing of those passages.


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## Pip (Aug 16, 2013)

moody said:


> I was at that "Don Carlo" .I was on leave from the army and some of my brother's friends had a spare ticket so I joined them---thank goodness I did !!


"Chapeau" to you Moody, It's not often I wish 10-12 years of my life away, but to see those two performances, especially the
Don Carlo, I would.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Pip said:


> "Chapeau" to you Moody, It's not often I wish 10-12 years of my life away, but to see those two performances, especially the
> Don Carlo, I would.


I saw it again when Rita Gorr sang Princess Eboli,she made a huge impression on me.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

operashoppejim said:


> The most outrageous performance I have is a 1982 Forza Del Destino from [of all places] Berlin! The singers are Varady and Merighi and they are superb but the audience goes wild they boo, scream, interrupt the music and laugh during Pace, Pace. it seems that the production like so many idiotic productions today was horrendous and ridiculous, and the poor singers took the brunt of the audiences ire!


the Berlin audiences seem(ed?) particularly ruthless. I was listening to operatic disasters on youtube and one from the series gives you the location of the performance as well, and the Berlinese were particularly disruptive even when the singer did not actually sound bad (but rather weak of voice).


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

Bellinilover said:


> It doesn't bother me.
> 
> What I've noticed is that she has an unusual way of pronouncing her "e's" -- like, for example, the "e" in the word "re" in _La Cenerentola_'s "Una volta c'er'un re." Bartoli is from Rome, so I assume it's her Roman accent (?) At any rate, I've never really been one to complain about what other people call a singer's "mannerisms." I don't even mind Bartoli's way of articulating each note in the coloratura passages, rather than singing them smoothly. I wouldn't want every singer to sing them like that, but I believe it lends a certain excitement to Bartoli's singing of those passages.


I agree with you on Bartoli and mannerisms in general. Thank goodness not all singers sound the same or we could have called it a day when the roles were created. I've actually avoided Bartoli's Norma because of my prejudice that her voice would not lend itself to that but I do enjoy her Baroque arias a lot. I'm not so keen on other things she's done but not because of mannerism, rather because I don't like her voice very much.


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## Hoffmann (Jun 10, 2013)

Pip said:


> My favourite Meistersinger of all - Bayreuth Festival 24th July 1956 conducted by Andre Cluytens.
> 
> Hans Sachs,	Hans Hotter
> 
> ...


A friend just gave me his copy of the recording of that _Don Carlo_ (Myto) to listen to, which I haven't done yet. That will be first up tomorrow!


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

Yeah, I'm a broken record (for those who remember the days of LPs). But my desert island live performance has to be the Zürich _Fidelio _with Camilla Nylund and Jonas Kaufmann.


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

deggial said:


> I agree with you on Bartoli and mannerisms in general. Thank goodness not all singers sound the same or we could have called it a day when the roles were created. I've actually avoided Bartoli's Norma because of my prejudice that her voice would not lend itself to that but I do enjoy her Baroque arias a lot. I'm not so keen on other things she's done but not because of mannerism, rather because I don't like her voice very much.


What gets me is the fact that opera aficionados tend to complain that "all singers today sound alike" -- and then, when a distinctive singer comes along, they tend to dismiss her or him with the label "mannered."  To paraphrase the late J.B. Steane, that word "mannered" is too often used as a sort of barrier: as soon as a listener decides a singer is "mannered," it's as though that listener then has a license to stop actually listening to the singer's performance, with the result that all of the beauties that performance may contain just go for naught.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

Bellinilover said:


> What gets me is the fact that opera aficionados tend to complain that "all singers today sound alike" -- and then, when a distinctive singer comes along, they tend to dismiss her or him with the label "mannered."


YES! I've noticed that, too. Initially it annoyed me, but now I'm taking it as a compliment and will look up a singer based on that criticism  I'd rather even have mistakes than a bland, lifeless interpretation.


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

operashoppejim said:


> I just received two different performances of Norma with Bartoli and although she sings the music beautifully, *her excessive mannerisms drive me nuts! Her excessive rolling of her r's is not only distracting and artificial but stylistically very poor*. Does that bad habit drive anyone else crazy too?


Cecci is way beyond her comfort zone with Norma, in the demanding high drama sections her exessive fluttering and trilling is very annoying and completely fails to deliver, her only saving grace is in the calmer arias like "casta diva" but that is not saying much. The remaning cast does a decent job vocally and the clarified textures of orchestra are interesting......but not better than modern instrumentation.

An ill advised project by Bartoli IMO, too many masterful Normas exist that demand our admiration and amazement! These two are gifts from the opera gods (and desert island worthy).....

















The Pristine Classical 1955 live Norma has far better sound quality than any other remastered version, the price is high but you get what you pay for here....


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

If I can indulge in some more Callas promotion, these two Divina label live CD releases are superb sounding taken directly from BJR master tapes, reference level performances of each work for me....


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Bellinilover said:


> What gets me is the fact that opera aficionados tend to complain that "all singers today sound alike" -- and then, when a distinctive singer comes along, they tend to dismiss her or him with the label "mannered."  To paraphrase the late J.B. Steane, that word "mannered" is too often used as a sort of barrier: as soon as a listener decides a singer is "mannered," it's as though that listener then has a license to stop actually listening to the singer's performance, with the result that all of the beauties that performance may contain just go for naught.


It depends on whether the mannerisms come between the audience and the music.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

I wish to nominate another performance that I dearly wish I could have attended.
At the Met in 1944 Bruno Walter conducted Verdi's "Ballo In Maschera" with a dream cast consisting of :Jan Peerce,Zinka Milanov,Leonard Warren and Kirsten Thorberg.
Milanov would have been at the peak of her form at that time and Peerce was certainly the best Verdi tenor of the post war years.
I have a pirate recording of this which at least gives an idea of how it all sounded but the real thing must have been fairly astounding.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

I'll go with Keilberths stereo Ring.
And Bohm's and Furtwanglers as well.
all are live and classic.


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

La Forza del Destino (dvd) 1958 La Scala, Pradelli cond., Tebaldi, Corelli, Christoff. 

Il Trovatore 1962 Vienna State Opera, von Karajan cond., Corelli, Price, Simionato, Bastianini. 

The Berlin Lucia de Lamermoor, 1955, von Karajan cond., Callas, di Stefano.

The Ring, 1953, Bayreuth, Krauss cond., Hotter, Windgassen, Varnay, Vinay, Resnick, Grendl, et al.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

That would be hard!!!! It would be like choosing between the best ice cream or the best fudge in the world as a birthday desert. The prime contenders would be Sutherland's premiere as Lucia at Covent Garden, any Norma with Rosa Ponselle, Callas in Armida, Tristan with Melchior and Traubel, Nilsson's debut as Elektra at the Met. Any of those would make me HAPPY!


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)




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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

_Adriana Lecouvreur_ with Olivero/Corelli/Bastianini/Simionato
_Tosca_ with Callas/Gobbi/Distefano


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

It would be Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte

The Gyndbourne version conducted by Fischer

assuming one had a DVD player


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)




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## Lensky (May 8, 2016)

Norma (Caballe, Vickers) Orange 1974


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

As Callas live is always preferable to Callas in the studio, mine would all be Callas.

Norma at La Scala 1955 with Del Monaco, Simionato, conducted by Votto
Lucia di Lammermoor in Berlin, with Di Stefano, Panerai, Zaccaria, conducted by Karajan
Anna Bolena at La Scala 1957 with Simionato, Raimondi, Rossi-Lemeni, conducted by Gavazzeni
La Sonnambula in Cologne 1957 with Monti and Zaccaria, conducted by Votto
Medea in Dallas 1958 with Vickers, Berganza, Zaccaria, conducted by Rescigno
La Traviata at Covent Garden 1958 with Valletti, Zanasi, conducted by Rescigno

These all have reasonably decent sound too.

Mind you I'd find it hard to leave behind
Armida from Florence in 1952 under Serafin
Macbeth from La Scala in 1952 under De Sabata
La Sonnambula from La Scala 1955 under Bernstein


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

nina foresti said:


> _Adriana Lecouvreur_ with Olivero/Corelli/Bastianini/Simionato
> _Tosca_ with Callas/Gobbi/Distefano


There is no live Callas/Gobbi/Di Stefano Tosca; just the studio recording.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

GregMitchell said:


> There is no live Callas/Gobbi/Di Stefano Tosca; just the studio recording.


I thought we could make our own up but if not then the Karajan 1955 Berlin _Lucia_ with Callas/Di Stefano.
Also ran: _Mefistofele_ (Newark) with Olivero/Campora/Hines).


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

An old DVD of a legendary live performance of Carmen with Plácido Domingo in his glorious prime with the Vienna State Opera led by Carlos Kleiber. Legendary!!!


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## howlingfantods (Jul 27, 2015)

Lately I've been obsessed with this performance:









Outstanding performance, I don't think I've heard any Otello approach Domingo's performance here, or Margaret Price's beautiful and touching Desdemona. Carroli makes a lot of ugly sounds and is frankly over the top with the sarcasm and villainy, practically twirling his mustache at times, but he's a dramatically effective Iago.

By the way, a side note--I'm not old enough to have lived through Margaret Price's career to know why it was what it was, but based on the evidence here, her studio Solti Ballo, the live (and in mediocre sound) 1978 Abbado Don Carlo, and the live San Francisco Aida on DVD, I don't understand why there aren't many more recordings of her in Verdi. She delivers my favorite Desdemona, one of my favorite Amelias, one of my three or four favorite Elisabeths, and a very good Aida. It especially makes no sense to me that she wasted her time on things like the Kleiber T&I recording when she's so temperamentally unsuited for Isolde when she could have been making what could have been classic studio Verdi recordings.

Kleiber is on fire on this recording, and this is captured in pretty good stereo sound. The recording is from a 1980 radio broadcast but oddly Golden Melodram incorrectly lists this as being from 1978. This recording is in much better sound (and in front of a much better behaved audience) than the more famous and widely circulating 1976 Kleiber Otello with Domingo, Freni and Cappuccilli--which I'm also very fond of but that recording is no match for this one.

I purchased this performance from Opera Passion, but the sound while vivid has a number of stretches with distortion or sound dropouts. The performance is also on youtube in more consistently decent sound here:


















I've also ordered the Golden Melodram version, which is being shipped from Japan (I hope it's the right recording--you never know with these Amazon marketplace sales) and another version from PremiereOpera Italy, both of which will arrive sometime next month. I have high hopes for getting this in as good a sound quality as I can get.


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## davidglasgow (Aug 19, 2017)

howlingfantods said:


> Lately I've been obsessed with this performance:
> 
> View attachment 107216
> 
> ...


Thanks for sharing this info. I also really enjoy Margaret Price's Verdi recordings - if I was a record producer in the 1980s my dream-team in Otello would have been Placido Domingo, Margaret Price and Giorgio Zancanaro (Domingo and Zancanaro appeared together in Otello at Verona much later in 1994 but there is no recording - Daniella Dessi was Desdemona by then)

I also agree regarding M. Price's recording of Tristan und Isolde, I can't help feeling that a lot of recordings around that time were miscast: Scotto in Nabucco and Norma, Ricciarelli in Turandot (title role), Freni in Ernani. I really wish that we had studio recordings of Margaret Price's Elisabetta or her Norma which received excellent reviews: we are not tripping over really good recordings of these parts in digital sound.

There are a few other Verdi recording by Margaret Price which I have not sampled yet but which you might be interested in, they are on Premiere Opera's website: no ideas what the sound quality is like or if they can be sourced elsewhere

Nanetta in Falstaff from 1970 (!)
Amelia in Simon Boccanegra from 1980
Giovanna d'Arco from 1985
& the soprano soloist in Verdi's Requiem incl 1982, 1987, 1988

Cheers


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

Salome with Stratas on DVD

PS. That's not live is it? Sorry. Please wait while I think some more ...


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## howlingfantods (Jul 27, 2015)

davidglasgow said:


> if I was a record producer in the 1980s my dream-team in Otello would have been Placido Domingo, Margaret Price and Giorgio Zancanaro (Domingo and Zancanaro appeared together in Otello at Verona much later in 1994 but there is no recording - Daniella Dessi was Desdemona by then)
> 
> ….
> 
> ...


I've not heard Zancanaro's Iago but he certainly has the voice. I think I generally prefer Bruson from that era--his voice isn't as beautiful as Zancanaro but I feel like I like the way he uses his voice better--more legato and more interesting characterizations in general--so my dream team would have been Domingo/M Price/Bruson, but I certainly would be super grateful for your suggested trio in good sound.

I really wish Premiere Opera would put some sound clips like Opera Depot or Opera Passion does, especially with their much higher prices. It's hard to pull the trigger on a random live recording without knowing what the sound quality will be. I did hover over that Simon Boccanegra and a 1977 Don Carlo for awhile before deciding to stick with just the Otello for now.


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Audio: The 1968 _Luisa Miller_ from the Met, with Montserrat Caballe, Richard Tucker, Sherrill Milnes, Giorgio Tozzi and Ezio Flagello. Thomas Schippers conducts. As I type this, I'm listening to the last act (Tucker and Caballe singing "Piangi, piangi.")


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## Winslow (Jun 11, 2018)

The 1949 recording of Nabucco, with Maria Callas, at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. The recording is less than desirable, but I would choose no other.


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