Complete Operas [Box set]

[Disclaimer: I may, from time to time, be a seller of this set.] First, to address the previous review, I imported copies from Italy in July 2011. Since one is going into my personal collection I opened that one and checked the discs - I had no trouble playing any of the discs I tried, and I specifically tried the first 2 discs (Oberto) and had no problem playing them even on a portable, Walkman-like CD player. So whatever problem did exist does not appear to be present in the current Italian pressing.

In general, I find this a simply outstanding collection that includes not just the operas but also the Requiem, the Songs, ballet music and alternate preludes not included in the opera recordings, the Four Sacred Pieces, the movement Verdi wrote for the aborted "Requiem per Rossini", the String Quartet and almost 2 discs worth of "discoveries" recorded by Riccardo Chailly (who is the conductor for the works below from No. 31 - on, where another conductor is not specified). If it is not every note of Verdi's music that has survived, it's darn close.

A few complaints - there is no English translation (on the other hand there is a book - not a booklet but a BOOK - of the Italian librettos). Although most of the operas with alternate versions have been included, the first version of Simon Boccanegra is not, nor is Les Vespres Siciliennes (the original French version of Vespri - however, in this case, I believe the musical differences are minor). The version of Giovanna D'Arco included is from a 1951 radio broadcast that has always been sonically problematic - it has been cleaned up sonically here, but it is still is FAR below the sound in the rest of the set. On the other hand, it IS a thrilling performance with the young Tebaldi and Bergonzi in radiant voice. The only good modern recording of Giovanna is on EMI and I guess they refused to license it. Some of the versions choosen would not have been my first choice, but none is without merit.

But some kudos are in order. Though Universal has a Falstaff (by Giulini) in it's catalog, they obtained the better-sung RCA version under Solti and also obtained the RCA Vespri with Martina Arroyo and Placido Domingo. Both the St. Petersburg and La Scala versions of La Forza del Destino are included, and both the Solti 5-act Don Carlos (in Italian) and the Abbado 5 act French version, with appendices, are included. They have included the better-sung (and harder to find) Del Monaco -Tebaldi Otello under Erede in preference to the more famous version under Karajan. I would have preferred the Sutherland-Pavarotti-Horne-Wixell Trovatore (although I already had that one and didn't have the Banaudi-Pavarotti-Verrett-Nucci version that is included, so that worked out for me). But the latter Trovatore appears to be uncut, while the earlier version suffered from cuts and tinkering by the prima donna's husband.

If you don't have most of these recordings, this is a no-brainer, to get all Verdi's works in one box for a little more than $4 a disc is a great opportunity. But even if you have several of the operas included, some of these can be hard-tofind (and expensive) at present - for instance the Oberto and the Stiffelio. In any case, here is the list of recordings that make-up this set:

1 Oberto conte di S.Bonifacio - Neville Marriner - Samuel Ramey - Maria Guleghina - Violeta Urmana - Stuart Neill
2 Un giorno di regno - Lamberto Gardelli - Fiorenza Cossotto - Jessye Norman - José Carreras - Ingvar Wixell
3 Nabucco - Lamberto Gardelli - Tito Gobbi - Bruno Prevedi - Carlo Cava - Elena Suliotis
4 I Lombardi alla prima crociata Lamberto Gardelli - Cristina Deutekom - Placido Domingo - Ruggero Raimondi
5 Ernani Richard Bonynge - Luciano Pavarotti - Joan Sutherland - Leo Nucci - Paata Burchuladze
6 I due Foscari Lamberto Gardelli - Piero Cappuccilli - José Carreras - Katia Ricciarelli - Samuel Ramey
7 Giovanna d'Arco Alfredo Simonetto - Carlo Bergonzi - Renata Tebaldi - Rolando Panerai
8 Alzira Fabio Luisi - Marina Mascheriakova - Ramon Vargas - Paolo Gavanelli
9 Macbeth - Riccardo Chailly - Leo Nucci - Shirley Verrett - Samuel Ramey - Veriano Luchetti
10 I masnadieri Richard Bonynge - Joan Sutherland - Samuel Ramey - Matteo Manuguerra - Franco Bonisolli
11 Jérusalem - Fabio Luisi - Marina Mescheriakova - Marcello Giordani - Roberto Scandiuzzi
12 Il corsaro - Lamberto Gardelli - José Carreras - Jessye Norman - Montserrat Caballé
13 La battaglia di Legnano Lamberto Gardelli - Katia Ricciarelli - José Carreras - Matteo Manuguerra
14 Luisa Miller - Lorin Maazel - Katia Ricciarelli - Placido Domingo - Elena Obraztsova] - Renato Bruson - Gwynne Howell - Wladimiro Ganzarolli
15 Stiffelio - José Carreras - Sylvia Sass - Matteo Manuguerra - Wladimiro Ganzarolli
16 Rigoletto - Riccardo Chailly - Luciano Pavarotti- Leo Nucci - June Anderson - Nicolai Ghiaurov - Shirley Verrett
17 Il trovatore - Zubin Mehta - Luciano Pavarotti - Antonella Banaudi - Leo Nucci - Shirley Verrett - Francesco Ellero d'Artegna
18 La traviata - John Pritchard - Joan Sutherland - Carlo Bergonzi - Robert Merrill 19 I vespri siciliani - James Levine - Placido Domingo - Sherrill Milnes - Ruggero Raimondi - Martina Arroyo
20 Simon Boccanegra - Georg Solti - Leo Nucci - Kiri Te Kanawa - Paata Burchuladze 21 Aroldo - Fabio Luisi - Neil Shicoff - Carol Vaness - Anthony Michaels-Moore - Roberto Scandiuzzi
22 Un ballo in maschera - Bruno Bartoletti - Luciano Pavarotti - Sherrill Milnes - Renata Tebaldi - Regina Resnik - Helen Donath - José Van Dam
23 La forza del destino - Valéry Gergiev - Askar Abdrazakov - Galina Gorchakova - Nikolai Putilin - Gegam Grigorian - Olga Borodina
24 Don Carlos (1867) - Georg Solti - Carlo Bergonzi - Renata Tebaldi - Nicolai Ghiaurov - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau - Grace Bumbry - Martti Talvela
25 La forza del destino (1869) - Giuseppe Sinopoli - Rosalind Plowright - José Carreras - Renato Bruson - Agnes Baltsa - Paata Burchuladze - Juan Pons
26 Aida - Herbert von Karajan - Renata Tebaldi - Giulietta Simionato - Carlo Bergonzi - Cornell MacNeil - Arnold Van Mill- Fernando Corena
27 Messa da requiem - Georg Solti - Joan Sutherland - Marilyn Horne - Luciano Pavarotti - Martti Talvela
28 Don Carlos (vers. in 5 atti del 1886) - Claudio Abbado - Placido Domingo [tenore] - Katia Ricciarelli - Lucia Valentini Terrani - Ruggero Raimondi - Leo Nucci - Nicolai Ghiaurov
29 Otello - Alberto Erede - Renata Tebaldi - Mario Del Monaco - Aldo Protti
30 Falstaff - Georg Solti - Geraint Evans - Giulietta Simionato - Ilva Ligabue - Robert Merrill - Mirella Freni - Alfredo Kraus - Rosalind Elias
31 Messa solenne (Messa di Gloria) in mi bem. magg (1835) - Riccardo Chailly - Elisabetta Scano - Juan Diego Flórez - Kenneth Tarver - Eldar Aliev
32 Qui tollis in fa magg. -Juan Diego Flórez
33 Tantum ergo in fa magg. - Michele Pertusi
34 Laudate pueri in re magg. - Juan Diego Flórez - Kenneth Tarver - Eldar Aliev
35 Tantum ergo in sol magg. - Kenneth Tarver
36 Pater Noster
37 Pater Noster
38 Ave Maria in si min. (attrib. a Dante.1880) - Cristina Gallardo-Domas
39 Messa per Rossini (vers. 1869): Libera me, Domine - Cristina Gallardo-Domas
40 Songs (15) - Margaret Price - Geoffrey Parsons
55 Quattro pezzi sacri
1 Ave Maria
2 Stabat Mater
3 Laudi alla Vergine
4 Te Deum
Georg Solti
56 Inno delle Nazioni - Luciano Pavarotti - James Levine
57 Otello: Mus. da balletto (atto III)
58 Aida: Marcia trionfale e balletto
59 Macbeth: Mus. da balletto (atto III)
60 Quart. per archi in mi min. - Hagen Quartett
61 Luisa Miller. Arr. per quart. d'archi di E. Muzio (selezione) - Hagen Quartett
62 Sinfonia in do
63 Var. per pf. e orch. sulla romanza "Caro suono lusinghiero" (da Tebaldo e Isolina di F.Morlacchi) - Jean-Yves Thibaudet
64 La forza del destino: Ouverture
65 Adagio per tromba e orch. -
67 Canto di Virginia. Variazioni per oboe e orch.
68 Otello: Preludio
69 I Lombardi alla prima crociata: Preludio (atto III)
70 Simon Boccanegra: Preludio (vers. originale del 1857)
71 Capriccio per basso e orch.

I have no hesitation in calling this a great set (and no one but Universal could have assembled all the operas in such fine performances) - whether it is worthwhile for you will depend on how many of these recordings you already own and how deep your pockets are.

The main reason of my review is to let others know, who might be interested in acquiring this collection, that there is nothing wrong with its sound quality.
I got it from amazon.com and carefully took a look to the first three CDs, due to a previously reviewer claimed some sound issues with them.
What I think it might have happened was that the sounds problems described, could have been produced because of some dust that was on the cds, and
that is the reason why I gave only 4 starts. Since it is not possible that a sealed box that is coming directly from the factory, comes with cds that have heavy dust that potentially could
scratch the cds. So the control quality that was done over the production process, considering the price of the item, is far away of being ideal (maybe that is the reason why they stopped temporally the commercialization).
However, leaving a side that problem, it is a wonderful edition that any opera's lover must have in his/her collection.

I bought this item last week in Paris for only 120 new but when I played it all the 3 first CD didn't play correctly by shortly skipping some small places with an unpleasant clic.
I avdive you to wait for the second edition as it seems that the first one has been removed from the market because of factory bad quality.
The 1* is for the bad quality of this product by a great label, not for its contents.