Karajan: The Opera Recordings

As can be seen from the reviews, people have different opinions about whether remastering is a good thing or not for these recordings. In any case, I did a byte-level comparison between what's contained in this collection and older CD's that I have. If the bytes are same, the recording-mastering is the same. Different bytes can be a remastering or a slight adjustment (gain, or volume difference). I don't have comparisons of all the operas - if I had older recordings of all of these, I wouldn't have bought the collection!The release date of the CD is in parenthesis, "OIBP" = Original Image Bit Processing, "ADRM" = Digital Remaster to Audiophile Standards (Decca). OIBP seems to have started around 1995.These recording are the same as older CD release:Carmen (1983 release)The Merry Widow (1992 release)Pagliacci (1996 OIBP release)Figaro (1988 ADRM release)Don Giovanni (1986 release)Tosca - Ricciarelli / DG (1984 release)Die Fledermaus (1987 release)Der Rosenkavalier - studio recording (1984 release) - mostly same (3 tracks were different)Parsifal (1984 release)These are different (see caveat above), with my speculation:La boheme (1987 ADRM release)Madama Butterfly (1987 release) - there was a later ADRM releaseTurandot (1982 release) - there was a later OIBP releaseGotterdammerung (1985 release) - I'm guessing all the Ring recordings in this collection are OIBPAll of the Salzburg live recordings were done in mono. The Rosenkavalier matches the recording included in the 50-year Salzburg Festival retrospective released in 2010. That's the only match of the Salzburg operas in my collection.

If you love HvK's symphonic conducting (who doesn't?) you should have no difficulty with these accounts. Tempos tend to be slightly fast, with an overall primary concern for BEAUTY! Recommended, of course.

Of course the music was uniformly first-rate, given that it's Karajan. My only disappointment was that some of the recordings were of live performances, which invariably impacts on the sound quality. But to get this many operas at such a low price is wonderful. The complete Ring Cycle alone makes it worth buying.

The recordings are fantastic, thus I must spend the time to listen to it all

Wonderful production of the Karajan conducted operas on DG, Decca and Philips!

this was great

Excellent!

Expanding Mr. Stenroos' comment regarding completeness of this box. There are three other opera productions by Karajan, which were released by DG - on video - that could have been included as "bonus" recordings, instead of Haydn's "The Creation". I'm referring to La Boheme from 1967 featuring Mirella Freni and Gianni Raimondi, Otello from 1973 featuring Jon Vickers and Freni, and Rheingold from 1978. The last mentioned represents one of Karajan's attempts in the area of stage direction. Although it was an unsuccessful attempt, it would have been interesting to have it included.There are many interesting recordings in this handsome box. Karajan had his own artistic ideas of operatic interpretations, with the emphasis more on the lyrical than on the dramatic aspects, where the orchestra is given a prominent role. The artists are first class. Others have written about the individual operas. However, it is a shame that the DG has not performed new digital remasterings of these recordings. Instead, they have used old digitizations which they've treated with a method called "Original Image Bit Processing". As I understand it, this is a type of digital washing machine. The result is that the 'digital edge' is still very prominent, or as one writer put it in a forum post: 'DG "why do my ears hurt" harshness'.