Montserrat Caballe Arias

The performance given on 21 March 1967 at Carnegie Hall in New York stems from the now outmoded tradition of casting baritones and basses in the castrato roles, and uses a special concert arrangement. Not only are several cuts made to the score, but the order of the arias is changed and the recitatives are heavily truncated and provided with new English texts, and given not to one of the characters but to a 'narrator'.

To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Opera master, Giuseppe Verdi, and the 80th birthday of opera’s last great diva, Montserrat Caballé, Sony Classical are pleased to release this special x2 CD collection. Caballé was born in Barcelona in 1933; she made her professional debut in 1956 and has performed in Basel, at the Liceu, Carnegie Hall, Glyndebourne, San Francisco Opera, Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera House throughout her career. She has performed with great Opera performers including Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, José Carreras, Richard Tucker, Piero Cappuccilli, Franco Corelli, Birgit Nilsson among many others, and Queen’s frontman, Freddie Mercury. Caballé’s extensive discography includes a host of notable complete opera recordings and recital albums, many of which have appeared on the RCA Red Seal label. This 2 CD collection showcases Caballé performing famous arias & duets by the celebrated Opera composer, Giuseppe Verdi. The collection features famous Opera favourites including ‘Va Pensiero’ from Nabucco, ‘Sempre libera’ from La Traviata, ‘Ave Maria’ from Otello, music from Il Trovatore, Rigoletto, Aida, Macbeth, and much more.

Some listeners might find the gimmick of “original jackets” sort of foolish, particularly when a) you cannot read the copy on the back if you are older than 15, and b) some of the CDs (taken, of course, from the original LPs) have as little as 40 minutes of music on them and only a couple have more than an hour. But the packaging is slim and nice (taking up the space of about 5 CDs), nostalgia sets in, the enclosed booklet reproduces the original essays (or excerpts from them) and includes track listings if not translations. And the low price for these 15 CDs (under $80.00) makes it very appealing from an entirely different angle.

This 4 CD set brings together the best of Caballé's EMI recordings and includes highlights from all her complete operas, in which her tenor partners were fellow Spaniards Placido Domingo and José Carreras as well as her husband Bernabé Martí. The operatic composers whose works are included in the set are Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini, Meyerbeer, Verdi, Puccini, Boito, Giordano, Mascagni and Leoncavallo, and some of the operas

Decca proudly presents the Complete Works by Giuseppe Verdi in a single 75 CD box set. From the ever-popular “Aida” to the obscure “Alzira,” all 28 of Giuseppe Verdi's operas are here as well as his Sacred Works, Arias, Songs, Ballet Music, the String quartet and other rarities.

This 1966 Paris concert with orchestra produced for French television features the great Diva at the peak of her powers, lavishing gorgeous tone and depth of feeling on a group of bel canto arias and scenes.