No recording of La forza del destino is definitive, or even self-evidently a better buy than any of its rivals. One is, alas, bound to choose here and there for this and that. In the case of this 1965 RCA recording it must be, at this distance of time, for the youthfully radiant Leonora of Leontyne Price who was always a fine Leonora though less successful, I thought, on her later RCA set under Levine; by the 1970s she was in cloudier voice. Merrill also sings well on this earlier RCA version, a top-class 'house' performance, and the set—which still sounds very clean and fresh and which is cleanly, freshly conducted by Schippers—has the advantage of general all-round strengths, or rather a lack of noticeable weaknesses, unless it is the rather humourless Melitone.
At mid price, this is a set you could get to know Forza by, the more so as it is complete. The obvious rival is the Callas/Serafin on EMI recorded in 1954 in mono. It is in some ways a more characterful performance but it has a weak Don Carlo, and there are cuts.'