Editing Thomas Beecham (section)

===French and Italian music===
In the opinion of the jury of the Académie du Disque Français, "Sir Thomas Beecham has done more for French music abroad than any French conductor".<ref>Atkins, p. 15</ref> Berlioz featured prominently in Beecham's repertoire throughout his career, and in an age when the composer's works received little exposure, Beecham presented most of them and recorded many. Along with [[Colin Davis|Sir Colin Davis]], Beecham has been described as one of the two "foremost modern interpreters" of Berlioz's music.<ref>Lebrecht, Norman. [http://www.scena.org/columns/lebrecht/031210-NL-Berlioz.html "Hector Berlioz&nbsp;– the Unloved Genius"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510004622/http://www.scena.org/columns/lebrecht/031210-NL-Berlioz.html |date=10 May 2011 }}, ''The Lebrecht Weekly (La Scena Musicale)'', 10 December 2003. Retrieved 31 March 2008</ref> Both in concert and the recording studio, Beecham's choices of French music were characteristically eclectic.<ref>Procter-Gregg, p. 196</ref> He avoided Ravel but regularly programmed Debussy. [[Gabriel Fauré|Fauré]] did not feature often, although his orchestral ''[[Pavane (Fauré)|Pavane]]'' was an exception; Beecham's final recording sessions in 1959 included the ''Pavane'' and the ''[[Dolly (Fauré)|Dolly Suite]]''.<ref>Procter-Gregg, pp. 37–38</ref> Bizet was among Beecham's favourites, and other French composers favoured by him included [[Gustave Charpentier]], [[Léo Delibes|Delibes]], [[Henri Duparc (composer)|Duparc]], Grétry, Lalo, [[Jean-Baptiste Lully|Lully]], Offenbach, Saint-Saëns and [[Ambroise Thomas]].<ref>Procter-Gregg, pp. 196–203</ref> Many of Beecham's later recordings of French music were made in Paris with the [[Orchestre National de France|Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française]]. "''C'est un dieu''", their concertmaster said of Beecham in 1957.<ref>Jenkins (2000), p. 3</ref><ref>Procter-Gregg, p. 39</ref>

Of the more than two dozen operas in the [[Verdi]] canon, Beecham conducted eight during his long career: ''[[Il trovatore]]'', ''[[La traviata]]'', ''[[Aida]]'', ''[[Don Carlos]]'', ''[[Rigoletto]]'', ''[[Un ballo in maschera]]'', ''Otello'' and ''[[Falstaff (opera)|Falstaff]]''.<ref name=pg203/> As early as 1904, Beecham met [[Giacomo Puccini|Puccini]] through the librettist [[Luigi Illica]], who had written the libretto for Beecham's youthful attempt at composing an Italian opera.<ref>Lucas, pp. 22–23 and 24–26. Jefferson (pp. 204–205) incorrectly gives the librettist's name as "Giuseppe Illica".</ref> At the time of their meeting, Puccini and Illica were revising ''[[Madama Butterfly]]'' after its disastrous première. Beecham rarely conducted that work, but he conducted ''[[Tosca]]'', ''[[Turandot]]'' and ''La bohème''.<ref>Procter-Gregg, p. 202</ref> His 1956 recording of ''La bohème'', with [[Victoria de los Ángeles]] and [[Jussi Björling]], has seldom been out of the catalogues since its release<ref>Jefferson, p. 200</ref> and received more votes than any other operatic set in a 1967 symposium of prominent critics.<ref>March, pp. 62–63</ref>