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This recording of Medea captures two great singers, Eileen Farrell and James McCracken, at the beginning of their illustrious careers in an opera that is rarely heard today and even rarer back in 1955.  As Medea, Farrell commands the stage with the security of a great Mozart singer and the red-hot intensity of a great verismo singer. Her last solo in which she gloats over the murder of their children to Giasone is particularly bone-chilling. In the '50s James McCracken was constantly being overlooked at the Met in favor of foreign born tenors. He must have relished this chance to display his wares in a major role and sings with a remarkable mix of heroism and lyricism. Laurel Hurley makes for a winsome Glauce. The sound is fair to good.

OD 10988-2