Ivan Sardi

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

Brian Large, Götz Friedrich

Wolfgang Brendel, Victor von Halem

Tristan und Isolde

Shuji Fujii

Jiří Kout, René Kollo

Wagner's erotic opera in a production by the German Opera of Berlin under the direction of Gotz Friedrich, with music conducted by Jiri Kout. Recorded at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Verdi Otello

Hans-Peter Lehmann

Renata Tebaldi, Hans Beirer

Desdemona in Verdi's Otello was a career role for soprano Renata Tebaldi, from her first operatic performance outside of Italy to her final appearance on the opera stage. Between those landmarks she performed the role nearly 100 times all over the world and made studio audio recordings that became reference recordings for the role. This 1962 production with the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Giuseppe Patane was planned as a media event from the outset and blessedly captures a consummate artist in a signature role at the peak of her gifts.

Don Carlos

Gustaf Rudolf Sellner

James King, Pilar Lorengar

This performance, taped for TV in 1967, has many of the most famous singers in the German orbit of the time, mostly in prime form, in roles that suit them, a great conductor in his prime, and is a well thought out production. Don Carlos is given in German, in the four act version with the usual cuts of that era and some extra cuts (the royal procession in the first scene is gone, the middle of the garden scene is gone, cuts are made in all the ensembles in the auto da fe scene, there is a snip -- not the biggest I've heard -- in the final Carlos/Elisabetta duet -- and finally the very end is rewritten by unknown hands -- the Grand Inquisitor grasps Carlos, Elisabetta faints (so no Friar, identification of the Friar as Charles V, and no final B flat.)