The best Turandot on disc
This is without doubt the best Turandot on disc. Nilsson's voice is more "free" compared to the RCA version but this might be a question of recording techniques. The three main parts work perfect together, they can not be bettered on disc. So - this is THE choice. To my very great astonishment EMI has chosen the recording with Maria Callas to their "Great recordings of the Century" series, not the one reviewed here. Callas sang the role a little more than 20 times just in the beginning of her career and she did not like it, she was afraid that it could destroy her voice, therefore she dropped it as soon as possible. Turandot was Nilsson's most sung role: over 300 times.
In one of his biographies Placido Domingo tells about singing in Turandot together with Nilsson at the Verona Arena. He had never in the whole of his career heard such a brilliant voice, and from then on he was one of Nilsson's many admirers. He also preferred the EMI recording before the RCA, but added: Even then you could not experience how Nilsson's Turandot sounded live. I tend to agree. Much of the brilliance is lost on records, "the great wonder" is disclosed only at live performances.

Warmest Possible Voice for Calaf
Well, Turandot may be the title character in this opera, but the lead one is the tenor's: Il principe ignoto/Calaf. And never is this more poignant than when Franco Corelli sings it, with his voice emphasizing the powerful personality of the character. According to a rough counting of mine, he seems to have performed this role on stage some 110-120 times (well-informed corrections are welcome if I am wrong).

He sings the role with an array of effects, going to the meaning of the text and drama, as he usually did with every role. For example, most of the role is sung here with his "melancholy" vocal emission, but in the final duet, his tone becomes bright. Overall, he gives an exceptionally warm voice to Calaf.

Unfortunately, Birgit Nilsson sings Turandot with a voice which is too light in color, but huge in volume: the combination creates a cutting sound that is shrilling and unpleasant. I know this is a minority opinion, but, just because the character is an "icy" princess who orders beheadings, it does not mean that her voice must be ugly: such crude characterization is unsophisticated in art. Plus, you will hear no conversion from her, she sings the final duet with the same cold voice.

Renata Scotto is a surprisingly good Liu, with some beautiful pianissimi and an overall excellent interpretation.

Conductor Francesco Molinari-Pradelli achieves a superb rendition of this extremely difficult work to perform, emphasizing Puccini's complicated orchestration, motifs, and pentatonic tunes, in an opera that sounds like an oratorio, returning to the ritualistic/sacred origins of the genre. Perhaps the best conducting of Turandot I have ever heard so far.

Drawback to MP3 recording
I picked this recording for several reasons: [1] I saw Turandot performed at the Met with Birgit Nilsson about 45 years ago, [2] I could download the MP3 tracks and have it the same day.

I am very pleased with the overall recording, but the MP3 format is a drawback and I won't buy another full opera that is in that format again. It is impossible (and we tried with editing software) to erase the pauses (however short) between tracks. Some pauses are not very noticeable, but others are very noticeable and a bit annoying.

If not for the pauses, it would be a 5 star rating.

The best studio cd
I don't think one will ever find a recording like this one. The cast is perfect, and the conducting is so well balanced and paced.

Hard to believe the price for such a great sounding cd.

It clearly beats out the Pavarotti/Sutherland version-mainly because of the conducting. Mehta is way too extreme and overdoes it in my opinion.

Cinematic Turandot
This remains the supreme reference in "Turandot" recordings. Molinari-Pradelli's direction is imperious and tender in exactly the right proportion and, together with the brilliant cast, M-P manages to render a virtually cinematic image of Puccini's Orientalist fantasy -- in this regard it is unequalled. Mehta's later recording comes close, but with a cast that, for all its vocal brilliance (not least the astonishing contribution of Joan Sutherland as Turandot), cannot match the superb, mercurial performances on the EMI set. This set is the aural equivalent of the great postwar Italian director Luchino Visconti's opulent and visceral cinematic wonders, "Senso" and "The Leopard," and the cast belongs to the generation of great Puccini singers that could be thought to know exactly what the idea of cinematic opera might mean -- this is especially true of the Calaf and the Liu on this set. Franco Corelli is simply the the most gorgeous, sensual, and heartbreaking Calaf on record, and Renata Scotto's Liu is fully his equal -- she is unsurpassed in the role. Just listen to the finale of Act 1 ("Non piangere, Liu") and you will hear (see?) what I mean. Nilsson's Turandot is even more dangerous and imperious here than on the earlier RCA set recorded a few years earlier, with a vocally impeccable but far less viscerally involved cast (Tebaldi and Bjoerling). But the emotional heart and trauma of this opera lie in the relation between Calaf and Liu, and this recording understands this.