Although overshadowed by the more celebrated second recording of Otello that Mario del Monaco and Renata Tebaldi made with Karajan (1960), many feel this earlier (1954) recording features both protagonists in fresher voice, and Alberto Erede and his Santa Cecilia forces really pack a punch.

Cast:
- Otello: Mario del Monaco (tenor)
- Desdemona Otello’s wife: Renata Tebaldi (soprano)
- Cassio his captain: Piero de Palma (tenor)
- Jago his ensign: Aldo Protti (baritone)
- Emilia Jago’s wife: Luisa Ribacchi (mezzo-soprano)
- Roderigo a Venetian gentleman: Angelo Mercuriali (tenor)
- Montano Otello’s predecessor as governor of Cyprus: Pier Luigi Latinucci (bass)
- Lodovico Venetian envoy: Fernando Corena (bass)
- A herald: Dario Caselli (bass)

‘Tebaldi has the most haunting pianissimo of any soprano in my time; and how she can manage it!’ […] The recording has warmth, depth, fullness … Del Monaco’s enunciation is ringingly true … I find this lovely soprano [Tebaldi] an unfailingly wonderful Desdemona: such tenderness, such feeling, such glow and strength in sustaining the big lines of the great duets and the ensemble at the end of Act 3.’ - Gramophone (January 1955)