"Il trovatore" G.Verdi

My clear suggestion would be the La Scala EMI recording from 1956 with a young von Karajan conducting, and Callas, Panerai, di Stefano et al. But it's a mono recording (albeit produced by Walter Legge), so you may feel the need to look elsewhere.

Used to be on 2 full-priced discs, but may now be available on lower priced CDs.

Graham

I am reluctant to recommend this recording (since I haven't heard it), however I have found Giulini to be second to none in other Verdi works he has conducted (the Requiem and Don Carlos in particular). The only recording I have comes from Colin Davis, but it is one of a number of discs I inherited in the last year that I have not yet got round to listening to, so I cannot comment on it.

However, Alan Blyth, whose recommendations on Verdi recordings I have in the past found very good, gives the set a very good write up in the Gramophone. That said, Blyth still prefers Grahams recommendation of Karajan so, unless you cannot bear mono sound, I would suggest you could do a lot worse than listen to him (as my recent thread on the Kleibers would suggest).

regards, Tam