Re: [ARSCLIST] Met Opera Record Club

[Mike Richter <mrichter@xxxxxxx>]

David Lennick wrote:
> I neglected to identify David Hamilton as the author of the note telling 
> us that the Met has little claim to those BOMC recordings. Meanwhile, my 
> original questions (apart from RCA issuing a couple of those sets 
> commercially) linger. Were these albums ever sold in stores or issued 
> overseas? There's an "Otello" highlights album with Steber, Vinay and 
> Cleva conducting, on Philips ABL 3005. I have no equivalent Columbia 
> version turning up in Schwann..I wonder if this might have been from the 
> Met series.
>
> dl

Columbia rather feebly competed with RCA, particularly in excerpts 
albums. They were limited because most of the American star singers were 
exclusive with RCA, so competed against the complete Stevens/Peerce 
Carmen with excerpts featuring Swarthout/Vinay. They did issue a few 
complete operas with Met casts, but they were not big sellers.

Mike
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