Bidu Sayao: Celebrated Operatic Arias (with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Fausto Cleva conducting; Columbia, 8 sides). With the help of recording engineers, who build up her graceful little voice, Brazil's Bidu comes through handsomely. The eight arias are mostly from the roles (in Manon, La Bohème) which made Sayao famous at the Met. Performance: good.
Mahler: Songs of a Wayfarer (Carol Brice, contralto, with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner conducting; Columbia, 4 sides). In the first recording of these six songs of unrequited love, written by Mahler when he was 23 Koussevitzky's protégée, Carol Brice (TIME, March 11) reveals a...