Legendary maestro Thomas Schippers conducts the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and chorus in a December 1962 performance of Verdi's Ernani, which features a truly bravura performance by Carlo Bergonzi.

Herbert von Karajan's 1949 Salzburg Festival recording of Verdi's Requiem is not the greatest recording of the work ever made. There are, after all, recordings by Toscanini, Giulini, Abbado, and Serafin in that competition. And it's not the greatest recording of the Requiem ever made by Karajan. There are also his two studio recordings of the work from 1972 and 1984 for Deutsche Grammophon. But for those listeners who love the conductor's way with...