Figaro CD Recmmendations?

[Clifford Ando]

I'm afraid that my recommendation for first, and cheapest,
purchase would be the Siepi/Bueden set with Vienna and Kleiber. Every
singer on that recording was a veteran in his/her role, and Erich Kleiber
a great opera conductor. It's stylish in the best sense of the word.

As I said in another posting, it's worth thinking about the
Figaro that came out of the first years of the Glyndebourne festival.
Some of the singers are absolutely first-rate (especially the women), and
Fritz Busch was a superb, a glorious opera conductor. In particular,
their first season at Glyndebourne they could only afford to produce one
opera, so this Figaro was rehearsed for more than two months--and then
performances--before it was recorded. The ensemble work is
breathtaking. In that sense, Figaro was better rehearsed than the other
two productions for the next two years (Giovanni and Cosi).

I know its available from Pearl, and I think EMI has also issued
a set. Pearl *tends* to do a better job with historic reissues than EMI,
but if your record store will allow you to listen to each before you buy,
take them up on it.