The 1963-1964 season of the Metropolitan Opera was full of highlights and traumas according to Alfred Hubay. Some of those include a new production of Aida by Robert O’Hearn and Nathaniel Merrill with Birgit Nilsson under the baton of Georg Solti, new ticket pricing, a new production of Manon with Anna Moffo and Nicolai Gedda, the death of Fritz Reiner a week before the opening of his Götterdämmerung, a new production and US premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Last Savage with George London, Roberta Peters, Nicolai Gedda and Lili Chookasian directed by the composer and celebrating Shakespeare’s 400th birthday with a new production of Falstaff with Anselmo Colzani, Gabriella Tucci, Luigi Alva, Judith Raskin and Regina Resnik with the debuts of conductor Leonard Bernstein and director/designer Franco zeffirelli (Part 1 of 3).
(Recorded 25 May 2012)

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