I guess I'm in the minority, but I don't consider this to be THE best Traviata on disc.  Rather, It's one of the better ones.  The best thing about it is Kleiber's revelatory conducting.  He brings things out in the score I'd never heard before.  Easily the best conducted Traviata on disc.  Next best thing is Cotrubas.  A great actress with a decent, but not great voice.  She clearly has some troubles with the more challenging passages, but definitely one of the top performances on disc.  After that it's all down hill.  Domingo was a great actor, but he was not up to the part vocally.  The worst part is the infamous spliced in high note.  Everyone knows exactly what I'm talking about, it's the big white elephant in the room.  The splice is so bad, it sounds like it was sung by a different tenor, in a different venue, on a different day.  How could DG's producers and engineers, or Mr. Domingo for that matter, allow such a transgression to make it to disc?  I've never heard such an awful edit on such an important note.  Inexcusable.  Finally we have Sherril Milnes.  I hadn't listened to any of his recordings in a long time, and now I remember why.  Awful Italian pronunciation.  Ugly vocal technique with those scoops and whoops and harsh mid-western vowels.  He really should have pursued a career in Broadway instead where he could have sung everything in English.

My favorite recordings remain Sutherland/Bergonzi/Merrill/Pritchard and Moffo/Tucker/Merrill/Previtali.  Had EMI followed RCA and Decca's lead and started recording in stereo in 1955, I would include the Callas recording too.
I guess I'm in the minority, but I don't consider this to be THE best Traviata on disc. Rather, It's one of the better ones. The best thing about it is Kleiber's revelatory conducting. He brings things out in the score I'd never heard before. Easily the best conducted Traviata on disc. Next best thing is Cotrubas. A great actress with a decent, but not great voice. She clearly has some troubles with the more challenging passages, but definitely one of the top performances on disc. After that it's all down hill. Domingo was a great actor, but he was not up to the part vocally. The worst part is the infamous spliced in high note. Everyone knows exactly what I'm talking about, it's the big white elephant in the room. The splice is so bad, it sounds like it was sung by a different tenor, in a different venue, on a different day. How could DG's producers and engineers, or Mr. Domingo for that matter, allow such a transgression to make it to disc? I've never heard such an awful edit on such an important note. Inexcusable. Finally we have Sherril Milnes. I hadn't listened to any of his recordings in a long time, and now I remember why. Awful Italian pronunciation. Ugly vocal technique with those scoops and whoops and harsh mid-western vowels. He really should have pursued a career in Broadway instead where he could have sung everything in English. My favorite recordings remain Sutherland/Bergonzi/Merrill/Pritchard and Moffo/Tucker/Merrill/Previtali. Had EMI followed RCA and Decca's lead and started recording in stereo in 1955, I would include the Callas recording too.