Luciano Pavarotti Edition Vol.1 -The First Decade (27CD+1EP)

This year, Decca celebrates the 50th anniversary of the start of it's immensely fruitful relationship with Luciano Pavarotti. The first edition in this new series chronicles the complete recordings of the operatic icon's first decade on Decca, bringing you everything he recorded from the day he signed the contract until 1973. The next two volumes to come will take US through the years when Pavarotti was already an international star whose fame transcended the classical world; these first 28 discs, though, present the stunning performances that built his legend in the first place. The final disc here: A 45-rpm vinyl reissue of his famous first EP from 1964, featuring arias from Rigoletto, La Boheme and Tosca. Continuing to work backwards: disc 27 boasts bonus tracks including the newly resurfaced recording of Che Gelida Manina from Pavarotti's first performance of La Boheme on April 29, 1961, at the Teatro Municipale in Reggio Emilia (that was well before his Decca period commenced). on the first 26 CDs, we find all the key partnerships (with Joan Sutherland/Richard Bonynge, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Kiri Te Kanawa, Sherrill Milnes, Montserrat Caballe, Zubin Mehta, Sir Georg Solti and more) and rapturously received performances from his first decade on Decca: Verdi's MacBeth and Rigoletto ; Puccini's Turandot, Madama Butterfly and La Boheme ; Bellini's Beatrice di Tenda and I Puritani ; Donizetti's L'Elisir D'Amore, La Favorita and Lucia di Lammermoor, and more! Decca.