Royal Swedish Opera Archives Vol. 8 – Verismo

When first performed at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, these works quickly proved huge public successes, and by the 1950s they had become a staple of the repertoire, showcases for the young singers of the time, like Kjerstin Dellert, Elisabeth Söderström, Barbro Ericson, Ragnar Ulfung, Erik Saedén, Ingvar Wixell and the Royal Opera’s permanent-contract Italian tenor Luigi Carrara.

Also heard on this collection are such veterans as Hugo Hasslo, and Sigurd Björling, and we’ve salvaged as much as possible of Jussi Björling’s Cavaradossi in a previously unreleased second act of Tosca from 1959.

Two master conductors from different generations, Nils Grevillius and Sixten Ehrling, give two strikingly distinct interpretations of Puccini.

On volume 8, the Royal Opera and Caprice are once again proud to present a unique discovery. When we began our historical CD series, we were unaware that a former employee of the Royal Opera had held onto a wire recording of much of its 1952 production of The Consul (Menotti). The first of many exceptional artistic collaborations between conductor Sixten Ehrling and director Göran Gentele, it’s yet another vivid illustration of the great post-war operatic events that, until now, were thought to have left no recording to posterity.