Franz Lehar: Die Lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow) [1953 EMI recording as originally issued with Overture] [Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Emmy Loose, Erich Kunz, Nicolai Gedda; Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus; Otto Ackermann] (Remastered by Mark Obert-Thorn)

On Naxos Historical 08.111007; 1 CD; Here is the famous 1953 classic recording from EMI's legendary "Champagne Operetta" series, remastered by the brilliant remastering expert Mark Obert-Thorn. It includes Lehar's 1940 "Overture," which has been omitted on EMI's CD reissues. Critical acclaim for this recording exhausted all superlatives: "To praise the performance, the recording ... of the opera, as they deserve would exhaust the limited stock of laudatory adjectives in our language. Emmy Loose is exactly right, Nicolai Gedda is a superb Camille, Schwarzkopf sings Hanna so radiantly and exquisitely, and Otto Ackermann conducts with complete understanding and the Philharmonia Orchestra plays like angels for him," wrote Alec Robertson in the July 1953 edition of "The Gramophone."