Quality recorded opera performances

One CD that I have found outstanding is:
Franz Lehar: Schon ist die Welt
Eufoda 1188
I picked this up at Tower Records, and is an outstanding recording of The Merry Widow, sung in German. I never get tired of this disc, absolutely gorgeous!
My other favorite I just stumbled onto is a DVD, of the Merry Widow, with the San Francisco Opera. The choreography and costumes are superb, and of course the music is also. This was on PBS a few months ago, and I just happened to find it available at Tower also. It was recorded by the BBC.
Of all the Opera Laserdiscs and CD's I own, these two satisfy the most! Give'em a try, I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Orff's "Oedipus Der Tyran" on DG 139251/53 Directed by Rafael Kubelik, starring Gerhard Stolze as Oedipus. This is arranged for six piano, four of them two-hand at one point and for a wide array of instruments from four harp, organ, trumpet, glockenspeil and triangle to bongo, timbales, konga, marimba and tom-tom. One of his last, it dates to 1959. Great engineering and performance of a greatly spiritual (if avant guard) and deeply moving work.

The new recording of Marriage of Figaro on Harmonia Mundi is a great recording, but it's also a great piece, so I don't know if you are interested.