Credits:

Various

Description:

The Metropolitan Opera began broadcasting live Saturday afternoon matinees on the radio in 1931. Since then, the weekly Saturday radio broadcasts during the season have become an established American tradition, even today with the MET Live Viewing and Internet radio broadcasts. In 2011, Sony Classical began a joint project with the Metropolitan Opera House to release on CD a selection of the most important performances from these live radio broadcasts, with 20 titles released to date. Many of these recordings, featuring the Metropolitan Opera's all-star cast, have long been famous among opera fans and have been distributed as pirate recordings throughout the LP and CD eras. For this release, however, the original masters from the Metropolitan Opera and other archives have been used for the first time, carefully restored and adjusted, and remastered to bring back to life the emotion of these historic masterpieces in their best possible condition. This special edition of a joint project to commemorate the bicentennial of Verdi's birth is a 20-CD box set containing 10 of Verdi's major operas performed between 1940 and 1967.The Verdi edition follows the recently released Wagner edition and shares the same box design, with the Wagner edition in red and the Verdi edition in blue. Verdi's operas, along with Wagner's and Mozart's, have been a popular repertoire since the early days of the Met, and have attracted audiences with their magnificent stage performances featuring eminent singers. This CD contains a recording of one of the most famous performances in the long history of the Met's repertoire. Most of the 10 works included in this CD are well known to opera fans, but the 1940 performance of "Otello" with Martinelli conducted by Panizza is considered to be a relatively rare recording (most of the recordings on CD have been live performances from 1938). All but "Aida" from 1967 were recorded live at the old Broadway Opera House at 39th and 40th Streets before it was moved to its current location at Lincoln Center, and all ten are arranged in chronological order. Two of the performances, "Otello" and "The Masked Ball," were also included in the Metropolitan Opera's annual series of live recordings, which the Met selects from past live recordings, produces and distributes independently to raise funds for the Metropolitan Opera. Sony Music

Tracklisting:

1.La traviata: Act 1. Preludio
2.La traviata: Act 1. Dell'invito trascorsa e gia l'ora
3.La traviata: Act 1. Libiamo
4.La traviata: Act 1. Che e cio?
5.La traviata: Act 1. Un di felice, eterea
6.La traviata: Act 1. Ebben? Che diavol fate?
7.La traviata: Act 1. Si ridesta in ciel l'aurora
8.La traviata: Act 1. E strano!... Ah, fors' e lui che l'anima
9.La traviata: Act 1. Follie! Follie!... Sempre libera
10.La traviata: Act 2. Lunge da lei... De' miei bollenti spiriti
11.La traviata: Act 2. Alfredo? Per Parigi or or partiva
12.La traviata: Act 2. Pura siccome un angelo
13.La traviata: Act 2. Non sapete quale affetto
14.La traviata: Act 2. Ah! Dite alla giovine
15.La traviata: Act 2. Imponete
16.La traviata: Act 2. Dammi tu forza, o cielo
17.La traviata: Act 2. Ah, vive sol quel core
18.La traviata: Act 2. Di Provenza il mar, il suol
19.Un ballo in maschera: Act 3. Ah! Perche qui! Fuggite
20.Un ballo in maschera: Act 3. Ella e pura: in braccio a morte
21.La Forza del Destino: Act 4. Io muojo! Confessione!
22.La Forza del Destino: Act 4. Non imprecare, umiliati