Or Ahlersmeyer's Valentin? Hopf's Diavolo or Turridu? Konetzni's Desdemona? Berger's Antonia? Well, now you *can*. The sound is amazing, especially for voices - orchestra passages get a bit blurry, similar to the sound of Met broadcasts, on AM stations in FM-deprived San Francisco, 2002 AD - and who says there is progress? From Mike Richter, Defender of Musical Heritage, comes a wondrous new treasure house of opera broadcast in German-speaking countries during World War II. The "Opera auf Deutsch" volume of the Audio Encyclopedia contains broadcasts, from 1936-1952 of Auber: Fra Diavolo Massenet: Manon Verdi: Aida Bizet: Carmen Mozart: Don Giovanni Verdi: Ernani Donizetti: Don Pasquale Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro Verdi: Falstaff Dvorak: Rusalka Offenbach: Tales of Hoffmann Verdi: Otello Gounod: Faust Puccini: La Boheme Verdi: Requiem Leoncavallo: Pagliacci Puccini: Tosca Verdi: Rigoletto Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana Smetana: Bartered Bride Verdi: Il Trovatore Gluck: Orfeo Tchaikowsky: Pique Dame Verdi: I Vespri Siciliani Just one cast as an example: "Don G" - Dresden, 1943 Don Giovanni: Mathieu Ahlersmeyer Leporello: Kurt Bohme Il Commendatore: Heinrich Pflanzl Donna Anna: Marianne Schech Don Ottavio: Hans Hopf Donna Elvira: Margarete Teschemacher Masetto: Gottlob Frick Zerlina: Elfriede Weidlich Chor der Staatsoper Dresden Sachsische Staatskapelle Karl Elmendorf, cond. From the introduction: In the United States the phenomenon of the famous Met Broadcasts is well known and these recordings are always sought-after - the earliest available date from 1932, the latest from 2001. In the German-speaking countries, a similar but technically different approach was chosen. The broadcasting companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland began in the twenties with special performances in the radio studios as live productions, most notably in Berlin under the direction of Cornelis Broonsgest, a formerly famous Dutch baritone. Thus they could fulfill the operatic wishes of their listeners, to complement the small repertory available then on shellac discs. This technical form of studio production was much simpler from the viewpoint of the sound engineers than recording really live in opera houses, which also begin in these days. Needless to say, some of the finest singers of these times like Joseph Schmidt and Heinrich Schlusnus were among the performers under such fine conductors as Leo Blech. It is a pity that only a few, brief excerpts have survived from the earliest times before 1935. I am betting that Mike will find even the recordings that have "disappeared"! Janos Gereben/SF [log in to unmask]