Listing of my preferred recordings and performances of Verdi's Operas

[GregFNC]

Over the past several years I've been listening to all of Verdi's operas in order of composition. It started with my wanting to become more familiar with his early operas. I've finally finished with that , from Oberto to Falstaff. For each opera I've spent a number of months listening to each and selecting the performance I've liked best and am now posting that list here. I must say Ralph Moore's evaluations (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/Ralph_Moore.htm) were very helpful (even though I often disagreed with him), however he only considered CD recordings of the operas whereas I have included performances on DVDs and broadcasts on YouTube as well.

Of course I have my own likes and dislikes of certain artists and that is reflected in my list. Generally my choices reflect my love of good singing - you will find very few recordings here with singers with wobbles, tremulos or strained high notes. Please note that often recordings with favorite artists were not chosen because others in the cast weren't of sufficient quality or because of poor sound. (For example, sadly to say, you will find none of Jussi Bjorling's great recordings included in my list.)

Should you have any comments about my choices, I'd very much like to hear them.

Greg Fitzmaurice
Durham, NC
gre...@gmail.com

(Note: Listing of casts will always be in S, MS, T, B, BS; Cond. order.)

01 Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio (11-17-39)
Guleghina,Urmana,Neill,Ramey;Marriner (Decca)
02 Un Giorno di Regno (9-05-40)
Pagliughi,Cozzi,Oncina,Capecchi,Bruscantini;Simonetto (Cetra)
03 Nabucco (3-09-42)
Suliotis,Carral,Prevedi,Gobbi,Cava;Gardelli (Decca)
04 I Lombardi (2-11-43)
Flanigan, Pavarotti, Beccaria, Ramey;Levine (Met broadcast,12/21/1993, DVD)
05 Ernani (3-09-44)
Price,Bergonzi,Sereni,Flagello;Schippers (RCA)
06 I Due Foscari (11-03-44)
Serjan,de Biasio,Nucci;Renzetti (Unitel Classics, Amazon)
07 Giovanna d'Arco (2-15-45)
Ricciarelli,Labo,Zanasi;Franci (YouTube)
08 Alzira (8-12-45)
Deutekom,Van Limpt,Smit;Bakels (YouTube)
09 Attila (3-17-46)
Roark-Strummer,Luchetti,Stone,Ramey;Ferro (YouTube)
10 Macbeth (3-14-47)
Zampieri,Shicoff,Bruson,Lloyd;Sinopoli (Philips)
11 I Masnadieri (7-22-47)
Delligatti,Farina,Hvorostovsky,Colombara;Downes (ROH Baden-Baden)(YouTube)
12 Jérusalem (11-26-47)
Mescheriakova,Giordani,Scandiuzzi;Luisi (Philips)
13 Il Corsaro (10-25-48)
Dalla Benetta,Lungu,Ribeiro,Salsi;Montanaro (Parma)(YouTube)
14 La Battaglia di Legnano (1-27-49)
Ricciarelli,Carreras,Manuguerra,Ghiuselev;Gardelli (Philips)
15 Luisa Miller (12-08-49)
Ricciarelli,Berini,Pavarotti,Nucci,Plishka,Cheek;Santi (Met broadcast,1/23/82)
16 Stiffelio (11-16-50)
Theodossiou,Malagnini,Casciarri,Vratogna,Capuano;Luisotti (Dynamic Records/Naxos)
17 Rigoletto (3-11-51)
Gruberova,Fassbaender,Shicoff,Bruson,Lloyd;Sinopoli (Philips)
18 Il Trovatore (1-19-53)
Price,Simionato,Corelli,Bastianini,Zaccaria;Karajan (DGG)
19 La Traviata (3-06-53)
Moffo,Tucker,Merrill;Previtali (RCA)
20 Les Vepres Siciliennes (6-13-55)
Studer,Merritt,Zancanaro,Furlanetto;Muti (EMI)
21 Simon Boccanegra (3-12-57)
Te Kanawa,Domingo,Chernov,Pola,Lloyd;Levine (Met,DVD)
22 Aroldo (8-16-57)
Vaness,Shicoff,Michaels-Moore;Luisi (Philips)
23 Un Ballo In Maschera (2-17-59)
Price,Grist,Verrett,Bergonzi,Merrill;Leinsdorf (RCA)
24 La Forza del Destino (11-10-62)
Price,Forst,Luchetti,Bruson,Talvela,Taddei;Herbert Adler (SFO) (YouTube)
25 Don Carlo (3-11-67)
Tebaldi,Bumbry,Bergonzi,Fischer-Dieskau,Ghiaurov,Talvela;Solti (Decca)
26 Aida (12-24-71)
Price,Gorr,Vickers,Merrill,Tozzi;Solti (Decca)
27 Otello (2-05-87)
Te Kanawa,Domingo,Leiferkus;Solti (DVD)
28 Falstaff (2-09-93)
Ligabue,Freni,Elias,Simionato,Kraus,Evans,Merrill;Solti (Decca)