The Lyric Opera of Chicago was founded as recently as 1954, but within two years it had secured the services of many operatic stars of the day, who were doubtless reassured of the quality and warmth of reception at the company by the trailblazing US debut of Maria Callas as Norma in its first season.

Sir Georg Solti, too, made his operatic debut in the US not with the more storied Metropolitan in New York but in Chicago, conducting Salome, Die Walküre and Don Giovanni within a fortnight of each other in October 1956. He then returned in November to lead two performances of La forza del destino followed, on the 10th, by a Gala Concert which was recorded by Decca and is now reissued here.

The singers were worthy of a gala anywhere in the world. Replacing Jussi Bjorling at short notice, Richard Tucker sang the Andrea Chénier duet with Renata Tebaldi, with Ettore Bastianini adding ‘Nemico della patria’ from the same opera. The evening was dominated by Tebaldi, however, in solo roles that she had made her own on stage (Delilah, Tatyana, Mefistofele’s Margherita) and in duet both with Tucker and with the mezzo-soprano Giulietta Simionato, then in the prime of her career. ‘So it went on and over,’ reported Seymour Raven in the Chicago Tribune, ‘with musical and emotional climaxes topping one another in the best gala concert style.’

Previous Eloquence reissues have restored to availability many of the LP-era operatic recordings made by Solti: not only complete works but recitals and galas such as Solti at Covent Garden (ELQ4808957), and a complementary compilation, ‘Solti at the Ballet’ (ELQ4806589), ‘George London sings Wagner’ (ELQ4807064) and early-career overtures with the LPO (ELQ4806588).

This live recording has had a chequered career on disc. It was originally issued in 1958, but contractual issues prevented the inclusion of the Chénier duet. They have finally been restored, and the complete recording has been newly remastered. For the first time it may be enjoyed in full as a one-off record of, without doubt, some of the greatest voices of that era.

‘Much fine singing can be heard here … The Gioconda duet is brilliant; and Simionato in her three arias is unfailingly dependable and stylistically authoritative.’ - Gramophone, March 1958

‘Simionato is very impressive … Tebaldi makes a surprisingly good Tatiana […] and Bastianini’s Chénier aria the best thing on the disc.’ - Opera magazine, January 1958