 | Verdi - Don Carlo / Domingo · Caballé · Raimondi · Milnes · Verrett · Estes · Giulini by Giuseppe Verdi
Buy used from: $54.02 A somewhar sprawling score, but its Act 4 is one of the greatest in all opera.
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 | Wagner - Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg / Kollo · Donath · Adam · G. Evans · Schreier · Hesse· Riderbusch · Karajan by Richard Wagner
Buy new: $46.98 / Used from: $29.74 Wagner's only comic opera has with one of the greatest characters in all opera - Hans Sachs
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 | Verdi - Aida / Caballé · Domingo · Cossotto · Ghiaurov · Cappuccilli · Roni · NPO · Muti by Giuseppe Verdi
Buy used from: $31.28 Once Verdi's most poular and perfromed opera, though it houses the great Triumphal Scene, it is also one of his most intimate.
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 | Boris Godounov (1869 & 1872 Versions) by Andrei Karabanov
Buy new: $50.98 / Used from: $25.91 The score has been much tinkered with (by Rimsky-Korsakov amongst others) but this is probably closest to what Mussorgsky wrote.
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 | Bizet: Carmen
Buy new: $50.98 / Used from: $12.75 Probably the most famous of all operas, this performance may not be ideal, but is worth having for Baltsa and Carreras.
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 | Der Ring des Nibelungen / Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Buy new: $181.98 / Used from: $111.27 Actually four operas of course - a contraversial choice of recording, but my favourite.
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 | Saint-Saëns - Samson et Dalila / Gorr · Vickers · Blanc · Corazza · Prêtre by Camille Saint-Saëns
Buy new: $23.98 / Used from: $11.40 The only one of Saint-Saens's operas still regularly performed, still probably its best recording.
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 | Tchaikovsky - Eugene Onegin / Hvorostovsky · Focile · Shicoff · Borodina · Arkhipova · Orchestre de Paris · Bychkov by Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky
Buy used from: $45.00 This was at one time the only one of Tchaikovsky's operas performed in the West.
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 | Richard Wagner: Parsifal by Claes-Haakan Ahnsjo
Buy new: $61.99 / Used from: $25.93 Wagner's last opera - and his most mystical.
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 | Massenet: Manon
Buy new: $67.98 / Used from: $41.00 This delightful work in a performance which captures its French style better than any.
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 | Giuseppe Verdi: Otello
Buy used from: $3.66 Verdi's penultimate opera was also his greatest tragic piece - Vickers and Gobbi in magnificent form
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 | Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana & Leoncavallo: Pagliacci (2 complete operas) with Maria Callas, Giuseppe di Stefano, Tito Gobbi, Tullio Serafin, Chorus & Orchestra of La Scala, Milan
Buy new: $32.98 / Used from: $7.99 Two operas, two different compsers- they will always be linked together.
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 | Pytor Il'ich Tchaikovsky: Pique Dame
Buy new: $45.99 / Used from: $29.87 A much darker and more brooding piece than Onegin, this opera is gaining in poularity all the time.
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 | Massenet - Werther / Alagna · Gheorghiu · Hampson · Petibon · Courtis · Fouchécourt · Frémeau · LSO · Pappano by Jules Massenet
Buy used from: $15.25 More essential Massenet, this has been extremely successful on record and you can't really go wrong with this Plasson, Davis or Pretre.
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 | Falstaff / Verdi, Gobbi · Schwarzkopf · Moffo · Karajan by Giuseppe Verdi
Buy new: $23.98 / Used from: $14.51 Verdi's final late great comic masterpiece.
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 | Puccini: La Boheme (complete opera) with Maria Callas, Giuseppe di Stefano, Anna Moffo, Antonino Votto, Chorus & Orchestra of La Scala, Milan by Giacomo Puccini
Buy new: $29.49 / Used from: $14.95 Puccini's perennial favourite has recieved many wonderful recordings, but this is my personal favourite.
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 | Puccini: Tosca
Buy used from: $15.89 No question - one of the greatest opera recordings ever made and a must for every collection.
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 | Dvorák - Rusalka / Fleming · Heppner · Zajick · Hawlata · Urbanová · Czech Phil · Sir Charles Mackerras by Antonín Dvorák
Buy new: $50.98 / Used from: $23.56 Dvorak's greatest and most popular opera.
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 | Pelléas et Mélisande / von Stade, Stilwell, van Dam, Raimondi, Karajan by Claude Debussy
Buy new: $34.98 / Used from: $19.00 This is Debussy's only completed opera and there is nothing else quite like it in the repertoire.
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 | Janacek: Jenufa / Mackerras, Soderstrom, et al by Sir Charles MacKerras
Buy used from: $9.76 Janacek's first great success.
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 | Puccini: Madama Butterfly (complete opera) with Maria Callas, Lucia Danieli, Nicolai Gedda, Herbert von Karajan, Chorus & Orchestra of La Scala, Milan
Buy new: $29.49 / Used from: $21.98 More essential Puccini - and more essential Callas.
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 | Great Recordings Of The Century - Strauss, R.: Salome / Karajan, Behrens, Van Dam, Baltsa, et al by Herbert von Karajan
Buy new: $23.98 / Used from: $13.99 Strauss's first great operatic success in a wondefully beautiful recording from Karajan with Behrens at the height of her powers.
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 | R. Strauss: Elektra
Buy used from: $21.93 Not a favourite opera of mine, but I suppose essential,
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 | Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier
Buy used from: $8.97 A classic set and an essential for everyone's collection, this has been reissued in EMI Great Recordings of the Century series
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 | R. Strauss - Ariadne auf Naxos / Schwarzkopf · Seefried · Streich · Schock · Prey · PO · Karajan by Richard Strauss
Buy new: $21.99 / Used from: $11.87 Another classic recording from EMI.
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