This 1950 Metropolitan Opera broadcast of Gounod’s Faust is still remembered today for Jussi Björling’s thrilling interpretation of the demanding title rôle. Although Björling was widely regarded as the foremost ‘Italian’ tenor of his day in the spinto rôles of Puccini and Verdi, he also excelled in French opera. On this recording Méphistophélès is sung by the vibrantly voiced Italian bass Cesare Siepi while the American soprano Dorothy Kirsten, one of the most admired spinto voices of her age, marries a finely-tuned coloratura technique for the florid Jewel Song with sweetness, purity and evenness of tone for the Garden Scene.