Under the leadership of conductor Georges Pretre, here are three lovely ladies in Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier. They are Gundula Janowitz,Brigitte Fassbaender, and Ileana Cotrubas, with Karl Ridderbusch as Baron Ochs.   (69 min.)

 A few lowlights from a 1965 Tosca with the famous cult figure Olive Middleton. She truly endeared herself to opera lovers and even in her 70's, she managed to exhibit some sense of emotion and even a few high C's, although most of her singing was closer to Berg than to Puccini. We all loved her and even some Met singers attended her performances. She is currently coaching with Maria Jeritza and Frances Alda. (31 min.)

 From La SCala 1967 under Herbert von Karajan, here are highlights from the Verdi Requiem featuring Leontyne Price, Luciano Pavarotti, Fiorenza Cossotto, and Nicolai Ghiaurov.  (67 min.)

In Italiano, we present Donizetti's delightful opera,starring Mirella Freni, Alfredo Kraus, Vladimiro Ganzarolli, and Anna Di Stasio, from 1975, under Nino Sanzogno. (71 min.)

From 1980 Aix-en-Provence under Jesus Lopez-Cobos, we bring you an example of remarkable Bel Canto singing. The cast includes Montserrat Caballe, Marilyn Horne,Samuel Ramey, and Francisco Araiza  (72 min.)

DO NOT PEEK before you listen!! Here are the 15 Flower Songs from Carmen (61 min.)

If you guess them all, I will send you my entire Fischer-Dieskau collection:

  Roberto Alagna, Peter Anders, Fernand Ansseau, Vladimir Atlantov, Enrico Caruso, Franco Corelli, Raoul Jobin, Antonio Cortis, Libero de Luca, Mario del Monaco, Placido Domingo, Beniamino Gigli, Jussi Bjoerling, Giuseppe di Stefano, and Nicolai Gedda.

 The very great Cesare Siepi at age 63 in a superb Simone Boccanegra that features Renato Bruson (still singing these days at 77), Ileana Cotrubas, Taro Ichihara, and Enrico Serra (Paolo.) The conducter is Gabor Otvos. (71 min.)

The great tenor,who "teaches a vocal lesson" when he sings. This is a 68 year old man who is a legend. I heard him at 78, and he was just as wonderful. He is not in the best of health these days at 88, and I hope he feels better soon. We love him so much.

Facing a tough audience at Parma in 1962, after there had been some altercations, Tebaldi sang a great Mimi, and saved the day. Others in the cast are:  Renato Cioni,EnzoSordello, Silvana Zanolli, Giorgio Taddeo (Colline), and Otello Borgonovo (Schaunard) under Arturo Basile.  (64min.)

  I have just received a series of wonderful compilations of various arias, terrific for your opera parties, where you can give prizes if you wish if people can guess some or all of the selec tions. I did not do a narration here, but here are the mezzos doing the Trovatore "Stride la Vampa":

Giuseppina Zinetti, Nell Rankin, Irene Dalis, Blanche Thebom, Miriam Pirazzini, Elena Nicolai, Oralia Dominguez, Bruna Castagna, Ebe Stignani, Irene Minghini-Cattaneo, and Fedora Barbieri. (29 min.)

I hope this series is enjoyable to you.   My best for a happy New year

                                                                             Charlie