Recommended Serafin Recordings

[Michel]

I just got the 54 Cavalleria with Callas. Bloody brilliant. A great conductor who worked with some most amazing solists.

So, what else do we like?

[Drasko]

[Michel]

Hmm, do you notice a similarity of that picture to my avatar?

I don't even like Del Monaco that much...

[val]

His version of Un Ballo in Maschera with Gigli, Caniglia and Becchi is remarkable. Not only because of the singers but in special because of his direction, elegant, dramatic, the ideal for this work. I prefer it to Toscanini.

[Tsaraslondon]

Don't know how I missed this thread til now, but, obviously I'd recommend all the recordings he did with Callas, starting with
Lucia di Lamermoor, with Di Stefano, Gobbi, Arie, Orch. & Chor. of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (1953)
I Puritani, with Di Stefano, Panerai, Rossi-Lemeni, Orch & Chor of La Scala, Milan (1953)
Cavalleria Rusticana, with Di Stefano, Panerai, Orch & Chor of La Scala, Milan (1953)
Norma, with Stignani. Fileppeschi, Rossi- Lemeni, Orch & Chor of La Scala, Milan (1954)
I Pagliacci, with Di Stefano, Gobbi, Panerai, Orch & Chor of La Scala, Milan (1954)
La Forza Del Destino, With Tucker, Tagliabue, Rossi-Lemeni, Orch & Chor of La Scala, Milan (1954)
Aida, with Barbieri, Tucker, Gobbi, Orch & Chor of La Scala, Milan (1955)
Turandot, with Schwarzkopf, Fernandi, Zaccaria, Orch & Chor of La Scala, Milan (1957)
Manon Lescaut, with Di Stefano, Fioravanti, Orch & Chor of La Scala, Milan (1957)
Medea, with Scotto, Pirazzini, Picchi, Modesti, Orch & Chor of La Scala, Milan (1957)
Lucia di Lammermoor, with Tagliavini, Cappucilli, Ladysz, Philharmonia Orch & Chor (1959)
Norma, with ludwig, Corelli, Zaccaria, Orch & Chor of La Scala, Milan (1960)

He was not above taking an accompanimental role, as he did on several classic recital discs such as Callas's Puccini Arias and Lyric and Coloratura, and Jon Vickers's wonderful early recital of Italian arias.

Another great Serafin recording is that of Otello, with Vickers, Rysanek and Gobbi, one of the best, maybe even the best available.

His La Boheme and Madama Butterfly with Tebaldi and Bergonzi are very highly regarded, though, personally I find Tebaldi's Mimi and Butterfly less convincing than De Los Angeles, Freni or Callas in the former and Scotto, De Los Angeles and Callas in the latter.