21 October 2012 marks Sir Georg Solti's centenary and Decca is celebrating this with several important reissues.

Sir Georg was an exclusive Decca artist for 50 years. In 1947 he signed his first contract with Decca, as a pianist, and that same year he made his first record as a conductor (with the Zurich Tonhalle in Beethoven's Egmont Overture). His last public concerts took place just a few weeks before his death in 1997 and were with the Zurich Tonhalle.

Solti was a musician with extraordinarily wide musical interests and sympathies and he was without doubt one of the most important opera conductors of the second half of the twentieth century. His legacy of recordings is dominated by opera and his recording of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen - the first ever complete studio recording - has been described as "the greatest recording of all time" [BBC Music Magazine, January 2012]

Contents:
Aida [Rome, 1961]
Cast:
- Leontyne Price (Aida)
- Rita Gorr (Amneris)
- Jon Vickers (Radamès)
- Robert Merrill (Amonasro)
- Giorgio Tozzi (Ramfis)
- Franco Ricciardi (Un Messaggero)
- Mietta Sighele (Una Sacerdotessa)
Orchestra e coro del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

Un ballo in maschera [Rome, 1961]
Cast:
- Carlo Bergonzi (Riccardo)
- Cornell MacNeil (Renato)
- Birgit Nilsson (Amelia)
- Giulietta Simionato (Ulrica)
- Sylvia Stahlman (Oscar)
- Tom Krause (Silvano)
- Fernando Corena (Samuel)
- Liberto Arbace (Tom)
- Piero de Palma (Un giudice)
- Vittorio Pandano (Un servo d’Amelia)
Orchestra e coro dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Roma

Don Carlo [London, 1965]
Five-act Italian version
Cast:
- Carlo Bergonzi (Don Carlo)
- Renata Tebaldi (Elisabetta)
- Nicolai Ghiaurov (Filippo II)
- Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Rodrigo)
- Grace Bumbry (Eboli)
- Martti Talvela (Il Grande Inquisitore)
Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden

Falstaff [Rome, 1963]
Cast:
- Geraint Evans (Falstaff)
- Robert Merrill (Ford)
- Ilva Ligabue (Alice Ford)
- Rosalind Elias (Meg Page)
- Giulietta Simionato (Mistress Quickly)
- Alfredo Kraus (Fenton)
- Mirella Freni (Nannetta)
- John Lanigan (Dottore Caius)
- Giovanni Foiani (Pistola)
- Piero de Palma (Bardolfo)
RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Otello [Vienna, 1977]
Cast:
- Carlos Cossutta (Otello)
- Margaret Price (Desdemona)
- Gabriel Bacquier (Iago)
- Peter Dvorsky (Cassio)
- Kurt Equiluz (Rodrigo)
- Kurt Moll (Lodovico)
- Stafford Dean (Montano)
- Jane Berbié (Emilia)
- Hans Helm (Un Araldo)
Wiener Philharmoniker, Wiener Sängerknaben, Wiener Staatsopernchor

Simon Boccanegra [Milan, 1988]
Cast:
- Leo Nucci (Simon Boccanegra)
- Kiri Te Kanawa (Maria/Amelia)
- Paata Burchuladze (Jacopo Fiesco)
- Paolo Coni (Paolo Albiani)
- Carlo Colombara (Pietro)
- Giacomo Aragall (Gabriele Adorno)
- Ernesto Gavazzi (Un Capitano dei balestri)
- Anna Zoroberto (Un’Ancella di Amelia)
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano

La Traviata [Covent Garden, live, 1994]
Cast:
- Angela Gheorghiu (Violetta)
- Frank Lopardo (Alfredo)
- Leo Nucci (Germont)
- Leah-Marian Jones (Flora)
- Gillian Knight (Annina)
- Robin Leggate (Gastone)
- Richard Van Allan (Barone Douphol)
- Roderick Earle (Marchese d’Obigny)
- Mark Beesley (Dottore Grenvil)
- Neil Griffiths (Giuseppe)
- Rodney Gibson (Domestico di Flora)
Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden

Excerpts:
Nabucco: Gli arredi festivi
Nabucco: Va, pensiero
I Lombardi: Gerusalem!
I Lombardi: O signore, dal tetto natio
Macbeth: Tre volte
Macbeth: Patria oppressa
I Masnadieri: Le rube, gli stupri
Rigoletto: Zitti, Zitti
Il Trovatore: Anvil Chorus
Il Trovatore: Squilli, echeggi la tromba
La Traviata: Noi siamo zingarelle
Un Ballo in Maschera: Posa in pace
Don Carlo: Spuntato ecco il di d'esultanza
Aida: Gloria all'Egitto
Otello: Fuoco di gioia
Requiem: Sanctus
Chicago Symphony Chorus and Orchestra