Opera What is the best opera recording?

Would you like to narrow it down to a particular opera or at least a composer??? There are approximately 11,000 operas by 1800 composers. There are about 30 mainstream composers that have been extensively recorded.
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN
Fromental HALÉVY
Giacomo PUCCINI
Vincenzo BELLINI
Leos JANÁCEK
Henry PURCELL
Georges BIZET
Ruggero LEONCAVALLO
Nikolai RIMSKY-KORSAKOV
Arrigo BOÏTO
Luigi MANCINELLI
Gioachino ROSSINI
Gustave CHARPENTIER
Heinrich MARSCHNER
Carlo SOLIVA
Francesco CILEA
Pietro MASCAGNI
Richard STRAUSS
Gaetano DONIZETTI
Jules MASSENET
Giuseppe VERDI
Clemens von FRANCKENSTEIN
Saverio MERCADANTE
Richard WAGNER
Umberto GIORDANO
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART
Carl Maria von WEBER
Charles GOUNOD
Amilcare PONCHIELLI

I'll post some of the most popular operas later tonight.

I'll try to stick the most popular ones......Some are available in both full version and highlights versions.

Bizet's "Carmen"..Callas, Gedda; Paris Opera/Pretre...or:
Johnson, Domingo; Concert version..Radio France/Maazel.

Mozart's "Magic Flute"..Gedda, Popp, Philharmonia/Klemperer..or:
Schreier, Moser; Bavarian State Opera/Sawallisch

Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro"..Ramey, Te Kanawa, Popp, Von Stade; London Philharmonic/Solti

Mozart's "Don Giovanni"..Battle, Ramey, etal; Berlin/Von Karajan

Puccini's "La Boheme"..Freni, Pavarotti; Berlin/Von Karajan

Verdi's "Aida"..Freni, Carreras; Vienna State Opera/Von Karajan

Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess"..White, Haymon; London Philharmonic/Simon Rattle

Available as a set, because both operas are short and usually performed together are Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" and Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci"....Pavarotti, etal; National Philharmonic/Giuseppe Patane;
In Rusticana you will notice that the music at the midpoint was used as the theme music in the movie "Raging Bull".

You may also look for Verdi Highlights with samples of the Operas "Aida", "Otello", "Rigoletto", and "La Traviata", "Il Trovatore" and more. There is a good one on Polygram; catalog number 469217

FYI: Grandpad's link reference list is of vintage LPs, so most/many not available on CD.

Yashu: The Bjorling and the Pavarotti I mentioned are easily the two best sellers. The Parvarotti being newer has better sound which matters to some. No reason why an opera fan should not own both!!