Since you are interested in Manon Lescaut (complete opera), here is a list of other items that you may find interesting.
DELIBES
Lakme (complete opera) Mado Robin (soprano) / Agnes Disney (mezzo) / Libero de Luca (tenor) / Paris Opera-Comique Chorus and Orchestra / Georges Sebastien [ Naxos Historical / 2 CD - released 4/Mar/2007 ] The great soprano Mado Robin made her début at the Paris Opéra in 1945 as Gilda, and gave her first performance as Lakmé, which was to become her most famous rôle, the following year at the Opéra-Comique. |
VERDI
La Traviata (complete opera recorded in 1953) Maria Callas / Francesco Albanese / Ugo Savarese / Turin Radio Symphony Orchestra / Gabriele Santini [ Naxos Historical Great Opera Recordings / 2 CD - released 1/Jan/2007 ] Maria Callas first sang Violetta in January 1951 at the Teatro Communale in Florence. In the next three seasons Callas sang the role at Bergamo, Parma, Mexico City, Verona, Venice and Rome. |
BELLINI
Norma (Complete Opera recorded in 1954) Maria Callas / Mario Filippeschi / Ebe Stignani / Nicola Rossi-Lemeni / Chorus And Orchestra Of La Scala, Milan / Tullio Serafin [ Naxos Historical Great Opera Performances / 3 CD - released 22/Sep/2007 ] "The manner in which Callas colours her voice and the way she moves through the vocal register is very individual and not to every taste. If it is to yours then this Naxos realisation of the 1954 studio recording is in the best sound I have so far... |
VERDI
Il Trovatore (complete opera recorded in 1956) Maria Callas, Nicola Zaccaria, Giuseppe di Stefano / Milan La Scala Orchestra / Herbert von Karajan [ Naxos Historical Opera / 2 CD - released 10/Feb/2008 ] Before Maria Callas made this August 1956 recording of Il Trovatore, at La Scala, Milan, she had been singing it often since 1950 and with notable success. Her 1953 Covent Garden performances earned golden opinions. The Times critic considered the... |
GIACOMO PUCCINI
Puccini: Madama Butterfly (Complete opera recorded in 1955) Maria Callas, Nicolai Gedda, Enrico Campi / Milan La Scala Orchestra / Von Karajan (Conductor) [ Naxos Historical Great Operas / 2 CD - released 8/Aug/2006 ] When EMI [Columbia/Angel] recorded Callas as Madama Butterfly in August 1955, she had not yet sung it in the theatre, nor would she ever do so at La Scala, Milan, where it was made and her career based. |
DONIZETTI
Lucia di Lammermoor (complete opera recorded 1953) Maria Callas (soprano) / Giuseppe di Stefano (tenor) / Tito Gobbi (baritone) / Fiorentino Maggio Musicale / Tullio Serafin [ Naxos Historical Great Operas / 2 CD - released 1/Mar/2005 ] Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor was the first complete recording for EMI that Callas took part in, in February 1953 |
VERDI
Aida (complete opera) Maria Callas (soprano) / Fedora Barbieri (mezzo) / Richard Tucker (tenor) / Tito Gobbi (baritone) / La Scala Chorus and Orchestra / Tullio Serafin [ Naxos Historical / 2 CD - released 7/Feb/2007 ] Callas' dramatic power and her ability to shade the beautiful vocal line here find the best imaginable medium". In, for example, the opening phrases of the Act III love duet with Radamès, 'Là, tra foreste vergini', her voice has a limpidity which... |
VERDI
Rigoletto (complete opera recorded in 1955) Maria Callas (soprano) / Giuseppe di Stefano (tenor) / Tito Gobbi (baritone) / La Scala Chorus and Orchestra / Tullio Serafin [ Naxos Historical Opera / 2 CD - released 7/Feb/2007 ] "..the performance, it is that of Tito Gobbi as Rigoletto that defines it as one of recorded operas must haves. The role of Rigoletto is one of the most profoundly human of Verdi's creations. His character is defined in the music of the great duets... |
RUGGERO LEONCAVALLO
Leoncavallo: I Pagliacci (Complete opera recorded in 1954) Maria Callas / Tito Gobbi / Giuseppe di Stefano / Milan La Scala Orchestra / Tullio Serafin (Conductor) [ Naxos Historical / CD - released 29/Jul/2006 ] This recording of Pagliacci was made by EMI at La Scala, Milan in June 1954, some eight months after Cavalleria rusticana, and first published in April 1955. |
GIACOMO PUCCINI
Puccini: Tosca (Complete Opera) (Rec 1938) Maria Caniglia / Beniamino Gigli / Armando Borgiolo / Royal Opera Theatre / Oliviero de Fabritiis [ Naxos Great Opera Recordings / 2 CD - released 1/May/2002 ] an old-fashioned, flesh-and-blood, no-subtleties, stand-and-deliver Tosca |
RICHARD STRAUSS
Der Rosenkavalier (complete opera) Maria Reining / Hilde Gueden / Sena Jurinac / Ludwig Weber / Alfred Poell / Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra / Erich Kleiber [ Naxos Historical / 3 CD - released 1/Jan/2007 ] |
WAGNER
Tristan und Isolde (Complete opera) Martina Dike, mezzo-soprano / John Erik Eleby, bass / Hedwig Fassbender, mezzo-soprano / Royal Swedish Opera Orchestra / Leif Segerstam [ Naxos Historical Opera / 3 CD - released 26/Aug/2005 ] "If you were judging this recording only on the soloists (the excellent German soprano Hedwig Fassbender and the lackluster Wolfgang Millgram) it wouldn't be in the running but what lifts it above average is the wonderful playing of the Swedish Opera... |
VERDI
Il Trovatore (complete opera) Maurizio Frusoni / Daniela Longhi / Irina Tschistiakova / Roberto Servile / Budapest Festival Chorus / Hungarian State Opera Orchestra / Will Humburg [ Naxos Opera / 2 CD - released 1/Jan/2007 ] "The Naxos recording, scores across the board, something not encountered on discs since the Price-Cossotto-Domingo-Milnes/Mehta set foe RCA, some three decades past. As such, it deserves to be short-listed among available Trovatore recordings, even... |
BERLIOZ
Damnation de Faust (complete) Michael Myers (Tenor) / Marie-Ange Todorovitch (Mezzo-soprano) / Alain Vernhes (Baritone) / Jean-Claude Casadesus (Conductor) [ Naxos Opera / 2 CD - released 27/Jun/2006 ] "The cast is a good one, the orchestra idiomatic and Jean-Claude Casadesus, who has made his mark on disc before, is at the helm." (MusicWeb July 2006) |