On Thursday, February 28, 2013 at 9:07:20 AM UTC-8, Jerry wrote:
Some details on these 19 recordings are provided in Fellers’ 1984 discography on the Metropolitan Opera discs issued by the Book-of-the-Month Club. All were recorded at either the old Met on 40th St. or at Columbia’s 30th St. studios between
November 1955 and February 1957. All were either single discs or 2-disc sets and are likely all excerpts or, at best, abridged. All were monaural - one assumes that Columbia may have been in charge of the recordings and they were rather late to adopt
stereo. Finally, he claims that, in 1984, neither the Metropolitan Opera nor the Book-of-the-Month had the original master tapes.
The 19 titles issued (in no particular order) were:
*Carmen [Elias, Baum, Amara, Rudolf]
Andrea Chenier 2-LP [Tucker, Curtis-Verna, Lipton, Cleva]
Pagliacci [DaCosta, Amara, Guarrera, Cleva]
Tales of Hoffman [Crain, Hurley, Elias, Morel]
*La Boheme [Barioni, Amara, Krall, Cleva]
*Tosca 2-LP [Kirsten, Barioni, Guarrera, Mitropoulos]
*Fledermaus [in English] [Hurley, Krall, Haywood, Kozma]
Magic Flute 2-LP [in English] [Hines, Sullivan, Harvuot, Kozma]
Madame Butterfly 2-LP [Kirsten, Barioni, Harvuot, Mitropoulos]
Eugene Onegin 2-LP [in English] [Amara, Tucker, Elias, Mitropoulos]
*Don Pasquale [Baccaloni, Anthony, Wilson, Kozma]
Rigoletto {McFerrin, Hurley, Barioni, Warfield, Cleva]
*Boris Godunov 2-LP [Tozzi, Roggero, Hurley, Mitropoulos]
*Trovatore 2-LP [Curtis-Verna, Elias, Baum, Rudolf]
Hansel and Gretel [in English] [ Miller, Hurley, Resnik, Rudolf]
La Perichole [in English] [Ritchard, Herbert, Franke, Morel]
*Walkure 2-LP [Schech, Elias, Resnik, Mitropoulos]
*Aida 2-LP [Amara, Elias, DaCosta, Guarrera, Cleva]
Marriage of Figaro [Singher, Amara, Conner, Rudolf]
Finally, I have notes that indicate the Metropolitan Opera Guild once offered a 3-CD set of highlights from this series. I don’t know the specific contents, but the cover of the CD set featured illustrations of nine titles (identified by asterisks in
the above list). Would be grateful if anyone could offer additional information on the 3-CD set “An Era Recaptured.”
Jerry
https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Metropolitan-Opera-Orchestra/dp/B00H7IR376
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