CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

Luciano Pavarotti: The Best (Farewell Tour)

from: Decca

Release Date September 13, 2005
I don't know of too many that would give fewer than five stars to Luciano Pavarotti. What an amazing voice...we are fortunate to have been part of one man's unbelievable talent!

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

Verdi: La Traviata (complete opera live 1955) with Maria Callas, Giuseppe di Stefano, Carlo Maria Giulini, Orchestra & Chorus of La Scala, Milan

by: Giuseppe Verdi, Orchestra e coro del Teatro alla Scala, Carlo Maria Giulini, Maria Callas, Giuseppe di Stefano, Ettore Bastianini, Silvio Maionica, Luisa Mandelli, Arturo La Porta

Release Date March 17, 1998
No one should consider doing a performance of Traviata without checking in with this recording first. The Callas interpretation is riveting with detail and color that stands alone. Di Stefano is young, exciting, and half crazed a great match for Callas. Bastianini is on the same level with the best of them. This is a recording you can listen to from beginning to end without boredom.
The traditional cuts are welcomed. Had Verdi composed this work 20 years later there would have been no excess. I think the cuts add focus to this masterpiece by trimming the fat. And remember this is from the mid 1950s and live. Leave the sound alone. A nice complete recording, if it exists, with Magda Olivero could have been a second choice.

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

Nessun Dorma ~ 20 Great Tenor Arias / Pavarotti, Carreras, Domingo, Bergonzi, Aragall, Björling, Di Stefano, Kollo, Corelli, Del Monaco...

from: Decca

Release Date June 09, 1998
What beautiful music. I'm new to opera, but the tracks on this CD are awesome. My only complaint is that Nessun Dorma is the last tract...so I start out there first.

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

Puccini: Tosca (complete opera) with Maria Callas, Giuseppe di Stefano, Tito Gobbi, Victor de Sabata, Chorus & Orchestra of La Scala, Milan

by: Giacomo Puccini, Victor De Sabata, Maria Callas, Giuseppe di Stefano, Tito Gobbi, Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala

Release Date August 19, 1997
This is much more than the best opera recording ever: it is the true expression of perfection.

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

The Ultimate Puccini Collection

by: Giacomo Puccini, Herbert von Karajan, Riccardo Chailly, Stephen Barlow, Tullio Serafin, Lorin Maazel, Sir Edward Downes, Giuseppe Patane, Zubin Mehta, Alberto Erede, John Mauceri, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Kiri Te Kanawa, John Alldis Choir, Luciano Pavarotti, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bologna Community Theater Orchestra, Ettore Bastianini, Carlo Bergonzi, Renato Cesari, Fernando Corena, Cesare Siepi, Renata Tebaldi, Gianna D'Angelo, Saint Cecilia Academy Orchestra, Franco Corelli, Alfredo Mariotti, Regine Crespin, Royal Opera House Orchestra Covent Garden, London Symphony Orchestra, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra, Rome Opera House Orchestra, Pilar Lorengar, Berlin Philharmonic Brass Ensemble, Mirella Freni, Rolando Panerai, Jussi Bjorling, Leontyne Price, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Release Date June 09, 1998
"Quando m'en vo" is not omitted from this CD; it is just called "Musetta's waltz song." It is the same aria.

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

Aria: A Passion for Opera

from: EMI Classics

Release Date February 15, 1994
This is a limited number of arias of the possible repetoir of opera. It is, however, a magnificent collection. It is worth all the time to listen.

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

Verdi: Rigoletto (Complete Opera); Maria Callas; Tito Gobbi; Giuseppe di Stefano

by: Giuseppe di Stefano, Nicola Zaccaria, Adriana Lazzarini, Giuse Gerbino, Tullio Serafin, Chorus & Orchestra of the La Scala Theatre - Milan

Release Date August 19, 1997
It is an old recording, however to listen to Di Stefano and Gobbi is worth it.

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

Puccini: La Boheme (complete opera) with Maria Callas, Giuseppe di Stefano, Anna Moffo, Antonino Votto, Chorus & Orchestra of La Scala, Milan

by: Giacomo Puccini

Release Date August 19, 1997
Although I grew up with many of M.Callas recordings, it wasn't until very recently that I listened in full to her Mimi, a role she never sang onstage, unfortunately, and only learned for this recording. There are many really wonderful recordings and performances of this popular opera and of this sweet and touching character, the tragic seamstress who falls in love with the poet Rodolpho, one of Puccini's most endearing characters, Mimi.
In the last act, as Mimi is fading and her voice lovingly speaks to her friends gathered around her, I found myself weeping just by the sheer sweetness and love Callas had found to express this endearing character.
She got me! Who would have known that this great singing actress who had sung Wagner, Bellini, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

Maria Callas - La Divina

by: Giacomo Puccini, Vincenzo Bellini, Georges Bizet, Gioachino Rossini, Alfredo Catalani, Camille Saint-Saëns, Giuseppe Verdi, Charles Gounod, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Pietro Mascagni, Amilcare Ponchielli, Tullio Serafin, Georges Prêtre, Nicola Rescigno, Franco Ghione, Antonino Votto, Maria Callas, Alfredo Kraus, Ebe Ticozzi, Giuseppe di Stefano, London Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala, Orchestre National de la R.D.F., Conservatory Concert Society Orchestra, Lisbon Orquesta Sinfonica del Teatro Nacional de San Carlos

Release Date September 14, 1993
Miss Callas is why I became a lifelong lover of Opera. This is a wonderful way to introduce one's self to the music. Her voice, that voice...I have no words to describe. Just buy it and unlock a magical world. Listening to Miss Callas is like stumbling into a secret garden. It's lush, fragant, a force of nature. Dive in the water is fine. Callas Forever!!!!

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana & Leoncavallo: Pagliacci (complete operas) with Maria Callas, Giuseppe di Stefano, Tito Gobbi, Tullio Serafin, Chorus & Orchestra of La Scala, Milan

from: EMI Classics

Release Date June 07, 2005
Somehow, Amazon doesn't think it matters whether or not an opera is sold with libretto. IT MATTERS.

These are two of the greatest examples of recorded opera today -no doubt about it - but how much more wonderful if we all knew what these casts were singing about! An asterisk, a box for "yes libretto", "no libretto", that's all it would take. Come on Amazon, make it a must to signify!

I'm lucky, I've got the '97 and a few others, not to mention four other Pagliaccis, but what about those who don't. This gorgeous remastered rendering is "librettoless" as will be most who buy it.