Hey Noah, thought I would chime in. When I was a teenager I started to explore opera recordings and in 1969 when I returned from the service I started attending performances at the San Francisco Opera. And I pretty much agree with everything that Ralph and Nils-Goran Olve have to say about those older singers. What you’ve heard about Nilsson’s voice cutting through the orchestra like a laser is true. It was a phenomenal instrument. Jon Vickers was an extraordinary and unique artist. While I remember and appreciate his performance as Siegmund in Die Walkure it was his portrayal of Peter Grimes that left me astounded. My wife and I still get goosebumps when we reminisce about that performance. As the saying goes there were truly giants in those days. I find it interesting that perhaps Nils-Goran Olve and I were possibly seatmates for the 1972 performances. He mentioned the Sills and Pavarotti Lucia performance and I wonder if he remembers the final moment of the opera when Edgardo in his final dying moment clutches at his beloved Lucia which gave the big man some ample opportunity to do some serious groping on Bubbles! I’m sure in today’s climate there would be protests. Regarding recordings versus live, singers like Sills and Pavarotti seemed to transfer well via the microphone while singers like Domingo really didn’t. I don’t know how to describe it but there was a quality, richness to the voice that just didn’t get picked up by the microphone. Another example would be Giacomo Aragall. In the 70s if there were say 6 or 7 performances of Werther it wouldn’t be unusual for Carreras to do a few and Aragall a few. And nobody complained when Aragall steped in for Carreras or Domingo, his voice live was of that caliber. Yet his recordings don’t really give any indication of that quality, more like an approximation of what his voice sounded like. But, thank goodness we do have recordings of these wonderful artists and their performances. I’m the fellow whose friends make fun of because I have 14 different versions of La Traviata but they are all different like the Butterfly’s and Boheme’s whose amount of performances I’ve lost track of but they all offer something special one way or another. Enjoy your journey. I know I have.