{"product_id":"readers-digest-treasury-of-great-operettas-nine-lp-box-set-starring-anna-moffo-conducted-by-lehman-engel-rca-custom-rd-40-m-1960","title":"Reader's Digest Treasury of Great Operettas, Nine-LP Box Set with Program Book, Starring Anna Moffo, Conducted by Lehman Engel, RCA Custom RD-40 M, 1960","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA nine-record box set in a cream textured slipcase, and the cover alone is worth the shelf space.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe front carries a full-colour painted scene of a theatre at curtain-down: a hussar in a scarlet dress tunic with gold frogging turned toward a young woman in a lilac ball gown and long white gloves, a saddled horse behind them, a hansom cab drawing up, and behind that a crowd in top hats, plumes and evening colour spilling out under gaslight. It is painted loose and bright, all vermilion and rose and orange, in the confident commercial illustration style of its moment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAcross the top, \u003cem\u003eTreasury of Great\u003c\/em\u003e in white script, and then \u003cstrong\u003eOperettas\u003c\/strong\u003e in a fat gold slab serif with an ornamented initial O.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIn the lower corner sits the yellow imprint panel: \u003cstrong\u003eReader's Digest · New Cyclophonic Miracle Sound Recording · RCA Custom\u003c\/strong\u003e, with the line beneath confirming it was recorded and manufactured especially for Reader's Digest by the Radio Corporation of America, and the catalogue number \u003cstrong\u003eRD–40 M\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe box opens like a book. The left inner face is a printed essay page with a red ornamental border and two theatre masks at its head, carrying \u003cem\u003eThe Gay, Wonderful World of Operetta\u003c\/em\u003e by George Marek and \u003cem\u003eOperetta and Musical Comedy\u003c\/em\u003e by Lehman Engel. The right inner face is the credits panel, printed in brown on cream, and running down its edge is the best piece of design on the set — a colour-blocked index in nine numbered bands, each a different pastel, listing what is on side one and side two of every record.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eStanding in the box is the \u003cstrong\u003eprogram book\u003c\/strong\u003e, and it is the part most copies have lost.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIts cover is a grey theatre-poster frame set against a pink brick wall, lettered \u003cem\u003eThe Reader's Digest — The Golden Age of Operetta\u003c\/em\u003e, with the full cast beneath. Inside, every one of the eighteen sides gets its own page: composer, lyricist, a numbered running order with the title of each individual number, and the complete cast with the role each singer takes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThis is the \u003cstrong\u003e1960 Reader's Digest \u003cem\u003eTreasury of Great Operettas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e, catalogue \u003cstrong\u003eRD–40 M\u003c\/strong\u003e, nine LPs, produced under the RCA Custom imprint. The \u003cstrong\u003eM\u003c\/strong\u003e in the catalogue number is the mono issue; a twelve-record stereo version followed in 1962.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eReader's Digest sold records the way it sold everything else — by mail, in sets, to households that were not going to a specialist shop. What made those sets far better than they had any right to be is that the magazine hired RCA to make them, and RCA put real people on them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe soprano is Anna Moffo\u003c\/strong\u003e, and the timing is the thing. Moffo (1932–2006) made her Metropolitan Opera debut on \u003cstrong\u003e14 November 1959\u003c\/strong\u003e as Violetta in \u003cem\u003eLa traviata\u003c\/em\u003e — the role that became her signature — and this set was made immediately after. She went on to sing seventeen seasons at the Met, and in Italy became famous well beyond opera: \u003cem\u003eLa Bellissima\u003c\/em\u003e, host of her own television series, voted among the ten most beautiful women in the country. This is a lyric-coloratura at the very front of a major career, singing light repertoire for a mail-order audience, which is a combination that stopped being possible not long afterwards.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eShe is joined by \u003cstrong\u003eRosalind Elias, Jeanette Scovotti, Mary Ellen Pracht, Sara Endich, William Lewis, Peter Palmer, Richard Fredricks\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eValentine Pringle\u003c\/strong\u003e. The program book adds several more who are not named on the box at all — \u003cstrong\u003eRobert Nagy, Lee Cass, William Chapman, Arthur Rubin\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eKenneth Smith\u003c\/strong\u003e — which is one of the reasons the book matters.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt also settles the casting, and the casting is not what a buyer would assume. In \u003cem\u003eDie Fledermaus\u003c\/em\u003e Moffo sings \u003cstrong\u003eAdele\u003c\/strong\u003e, the maid, rather than Rosalinda — Jeanette Scovotti takes Rosalinda and Rosalind Elias sings Orlofsky. In \u003cem\u003eThe Merry Widow\u003c\/em\u003e Moffo is \u003cstrong\u003eSonia\u003c\/strong\u003e, opposite William Lewis as Danilo.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOne fact worth knowing before buying: everything here is sung in English.\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eDie Fledermaus\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Merry Widow\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eA Waltz Dream\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eA Night in Venice\u003c\/em\u003e — all of it is performed in English-language adaptations, not in the original German. The \u003cem\u003eFledermaus\u003c\/em\u003e lyrics are credited to \u003cstrong\u003eMel Mandel and Norman Sachs\u003c\/strong\u003e. That was the standard approach for an American mail-order audience in 1960, and it is either exactly what somebody wants or exactly what they do not; it is stated here so nobody finds out on the turntable.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe conductor is Lehman Engel\u003c\/strong\u003e (1910–1982), and he is the reason the Broadway material sounds like Broadway rather than like an opera house doing Broadway. Engel was nominated five times and won twice for the Tony Award for Best Conductor and Musical Director — a category that no longer exists. He conducted \u003cem\u003eLi'l Abner\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eShangri-La\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eTake Me Along\u003c\/em\u003e on Broadway and made studio recordings of \u003cem\u003eOklahoma!\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eCarousel\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eShow Boat\u003c\/em\u003e. He founded the \u003cstrong\u003eBMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop\u003c\/strong\u003e in New York, whose alumni include \u003cstrong\u003eAlan Menken\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eStephen Flaherty\u003c\/strong\u003e. He wrote one of the two essays printed inside this box and then conducted the records it introduces.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe producer is Charles Gerhardt\u003c\/strong\u003e (1927–1999), and this set sits at the start of the run that made his name. From 1960 Gerhardt worked with the engineer Kenneth Wilkinson on recordings for RCA and Reader's Digest across more than four thousand sessions. He is best remembered today for the \u003cstrong\u003eClassic Film Scores series\u003c\/strong\u003e of 1972–78 with the National Philharmonic — the Korngold, Steiner and Rózsa records still treated as the reference for that repertoire. The arrangements here are by \u003cstrong\u003eHenri René\u003c\/strong\u003e and the recording engineer was \u003cstrong\u003eBernard Keville\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe eighteen sides run from Viennese operetta through American operetta into Broadway, which is exactly the argument Engel's essay makes about how one became the other: \u003cem\u003eDie Fledermaus\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eMlle. Modiste\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Merry Widow\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eA Waltz Dream\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eA Night in Venice\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eBabes in Toyland\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Desert Song\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eNaughty Marietta\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eRose-Marie\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eBlossom Time\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Student Prince\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Red Mill\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eShow Boat\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe New Moon\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003ePorgy and Bess\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Vagabond King\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eRoberta\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eSong of Norway\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOne thing stated plainly, before anyone buys it as an investment. \u003cstrong\u003eThis set is not rare.\u003c\/strong\u003e Reader's Digest sold these by the hundreds of thousands through the mail, and copies come up regularly in the low tens of dollars. What is uncommon is a copy that still has its program book, since a loose booklet is the first thing to go. What is on offer is not scarcity — it is eighteen sides of well-produced music by named artists, complete with the book that documents them, in a handsome 1960 package, at a price that reflects what it actually is.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n    \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n    \u003ctbody\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eNine-LP box set in a printed slipcase with gatefold essay panels, with its program book\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eTitle\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eTreasury of Great Operettas\u003c\/em\u003e. The program book carries its own title, \u003cem\u003eThe Golden Age of Operetta\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eLabel\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eReader's Digest \/ RCA Custom — recorded and manufactured for Reader's Digest by the Radio Corporation of America\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCatalogue\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eRD–40 M. The M denotes the mono issue; a twelve-record stereo set followed in 1962.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eYear\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003e1960\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eLanguage\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSung in English throughout\u003c\/strong\u003e, in English-language adaptations rather than the original German. \u003cem\u003eDie Fledermaus\u003c\/em\u003e lyrics by Mel Mandel and Norman Sachs.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eArtists\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eStarring Anna Moffo, with Rosalind Elias, Jeanette Scovotti, Mary Ellen Pracht, Sara Endich, William Lewis, Peter Palmer, Richard Fredricks and Valentine Pringle. The program book additionally credits Robert Nagy, Lee Cass, William Chapman, Arthur Rubin and Kenneth Smith.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCredits\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOrchestra and chorus conducted by Lehman Engel; arranged by Henri René; produced by Charles Gerhardt; recording engineer Bernard Keville\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eContents\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEighteen sides: Die Fledermaus \/ Mlle. Modiste; The Merry Widow \/ A Waltz Dream; A Night in Venice \/ Babes in Toyland; The Desert Song \/ Naughty Marietta; Rose-Marie \/ Blossom Time; The Student Prince \/ The Red Mill; Show Boat \/ The New Moon; Porgy and Bess \/ The Vagabond King; Roberta \/ Song of Norway\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ePrinted matter\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eTwo liner essays bound into the box — \u003cem\u003eThe Gay, Wonderful World of Operetta\u003c\/em\u003e by George Marek and \u003cem\u003eOperetta and Musical Comedy\u003c\/em\u003e by Lehman Engel; a colour-blocked nine-band spine index; and the illustrated program book giving composer, lyricist, numbered running order and full cast with roles for all eighteen sides\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eScarcity\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eA common mail-order issue.\u003c\/strong\u003e Not offered as a rarity. The surviving program book is the uncommon part.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eGood, with honest shelf wear outside and a clean interior. \u003cstrong\u003eThe box is sound and square\u003c\/strong\u003e, the hinge is intact and it opens and closes correctly. Expect rubbing and light fraying to the cream wrap along the top edge and at the corners, and fine surface scratching and scuffing across the printed cover, most visible across the lower right of the illustration and the yellow imprint panel. The printing is otherwise bright with strong colour and no fading, tape, water staining or writing. \u003cstrong\u003eBoth essay panels and the credits panel are clean and crisp\u003c\/strong\u003e with the red ornamental borders unbroken, showing only gentle age toning. \u003cstrong\u003eThe colour spine index is bright and fully legible but carries a tear and creasing to its top edge\u003c\/strong\u003e, above the first band. \u003cstrong\u003eThe program book is present and complete\u003c\/strong\u003e, clean and bright throughout with all pages sound and legible. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n  \u003c\/table\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThree reasons, and they do not all point at a turntable.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe music is genuinely good and there is a great deal of it.\u003c\/strong\u003e Eighteen sides covering the whole arc from Viennese operetta to Broadway, sung by a Metropolitan Opera soprano in her first year at the house and conducted by a two-time Tony winner who spent his life in the pit. Mail-order packaging has caused people to underestimate these records for sixty years; the credits are the argument against that.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe program book turns it from a record set into a reference.\u003c\/strong\u003e Eighteen pages of composer, lyricist, running order and cast means you can follow every side, know who is singing which role, and read the plot logic of an operetta you have never seen. Most surviving copies of this set have lost it, which is exactly why it is worth having.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAnd the box is a piece of graphic design.\u003c\/strong\u003e That painted cover is a small master class in 1960 commercial illustration, and the nine-band colour spine is the kind of thing that gets framed on its own. It stands on a shelf, leans on a mantel, or hangs flat on a wall in a music room, a bar or a study — twelve inches square, for very little money.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt also makes an easy, specific gift: for anyone raised on \u003cem\u003eShow Boat\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Student Prince\u003c\/em\u003e, anyone in community theatre, a singing teacher, a new turntable owner who needs something to play, or a collector of mid-century record design.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on care, in two parts, because the records and the paper need opposite things.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStore the box upright, on its edge, like a book — never flat with weight on top.\u003c\/strong\u003e Stacked records take the pressure of everything above them and warp, and the box itself will bow. Keep it out of direct sunlight, which fades printed board faster than almost anything else, and away from damp, radiators and exterior walls; board and paper both take up moisture and the box will swell and separate at the hinge. \u003cstrong\u003eKeep the program book inside the box\u003c\/strong\u003e rather than shelved separately, and handle the torn edge of the spine index gently rather than trying to tape it — adhesive tape yellows, hardens and stains paper permanently, and a small clean tear is always preferable to a taped one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHandle the records by the edge and the label only.\u003c\/strong\u003e Skin oils on a groove attract and hold dust, and dust in a groove is what does the permanent damage. Slide each record out and back with the sleeve opening upward so nothing escapes, and use a carbon-fibre brush before each play rather than wiping with a cloth, which drags grit across the surface. If a record needs a real clean, use a proper record-cleaning solution rather than household detergent or alcohol, and never let liquid reach the paper label.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThese are mono pressings. They play perfectly well on a standard stereo cartridge; a mono cartridge or a mono switch will simply sound quieter and better centred if the equipment has one.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48035641196649,"sku":"VE-0689","price":126.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/IMG_3951.jpg?v=1789077754","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/readers-digest-treasury-of-great-operettas-nine-lp-box-set-starring-anna-moffo-conducted-by-lehman-engel-rca-custom-rd-40-m-1960","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}