Listening to Der Rosenkavalier, a VERY tuneful opera filled with glorious tunes by Richard Strauss and those waltz tunes especially, which, of course, were paid homage by Jerry Goldsmith in The Boys from Brazil. This recording, Herbert von Karajan conducting and recorded in 1956 and, I believe, only released in mono for many years, is an astonishing early stereo recording and sounds amazing. The singers are fantastic, too. I also have the slightly shorter (with cuts) Leonard Bernstein version - can't imagine a better recording than the von Karajan, however, and I'm glad I waited to make it my first. But boy is it long - over three hours.
