who is Franco Corelli?? where to buy his LPs??

Corelli was the leading tenor of his generation and then just stopped singing a year before he was to appear in Otello. He made a lot of complete opera recordings for Decca and EMI, which shouldn't be hard to find from the used dealers--Aida, Turandot, Carmen, Trovatore, Tosca, Turandot,and Norma are the ones which come immediately to mind. He had an astounding, huge, beautiful voice, but wasn't the most sensitive interpreter--even for an Italian tenor.

HELL of a tenor. More complete recordings are: I Pagliacci, Cavalleria Rusticana, Manon Lescaut, Andrea Chenier, and numerous pirated recordings. LPs? That's a tough one.

Of course, you are "politically correct", but, and it's a BIG butt, who else are you going to hear with that much voice doing the roles you mentioned? It certainly isn't Gedda or (really!) Alagna. I'm sorry about Alagna. I tried one of his aria CDs and IMO this is an unfinished techique that is going to cut the good part of his career short. Yeah, he's a jillionaire and all that but it's too bad he hasn't gotten it all together.

You want thrills, chills, and spills, you go with Corelli.

P.S. I LOVE Gedda.

thanks, folks, for all your insightful information.

Tim