Verdi: Aida

Here's a prime-1950s cast in good monophonic sound, and it delivers the vocal thrills to keep its place high among the preferred recordings of Aida. The first voice you hear is the rich, rumbling bass of Boris Christoff and that immediately lets you know this will be no ordinary Aida. Bjorling's "Celeste Aida" is gold- standard, with gorgeous timbre, firm line, and a haunting mezza voce. From there, he just gets better. Zinka Milanov's Ethiopian princess is outstanding, full of marvelous touches and ravishing pianissimos--as well as a few minor rough spots. Fedora Barbieri and Leonard Warren offer full-voiced grand singing and Jonel Perlea keeps it all moving to fine dramatic effect. --Dan Davis