Adventures of Odysseus (Classic Literature with Classical Music)
Back at the dawn of the LP era, Verdi fans who wanted to hear anything  he composed beforeRigolettousually had to resort to the Cetra label,  which assiduously turned out recordings of Italian operas--usually from radio  broadcasts--that bigger companies ignored. The performances tended to be  provincial in quality, the text often was seriously cut, and the sound  engineering was primitive. But until the 1960s Cetra offered the onlyNabucco,Ernani, orLuisa Milleryou could find. Those old  Cetras have been superseded now and are of primarily archaeological interest,  but this one deserves some attention for Fernando Previtali's forceful  conducting and a generally interesting cast--notably Gino Penno. Penno had a  relatively short career and is nearly forgotten today, but in 1951 he knew and  demonstrated howErnanishould be sung.--Joe McLellan