A peculiar release received; strictly for Callas completists, I guess.

The earliest is of La Vestale 1954 - the recording quality is execrable... We are warned that her "vocal quality declined noticeably" even in the '50s.

There are "60 second overviews" with recommended highlights for each opera. Sampling a later one, Donizetti's Poliuto, Track 4 is meant to be one of Callas's arias, but isn't... On track 5 she indeed arrives, to applause which stops the show for a full couple of minutes before she is allowed to sing !

I give up.

Callas apart, great names are to be found in most of the casts, variously from La Scala, Rome, Berlin and the 1964 Tosca at Covent Garden, with Vissi d'arte.

No libretti, of course, and only a few of them are to be found on line.

Probably EMI's collection of studio recordings: "70 cds for almost nothing - - hope a similar set on all live performances will follow?" is a better bet than this from Bravissimo.

Peter Grahame Woolf

See Callas in Lucia, Traviata & Norma - "a good basis for a Callas collection"