The Covent Garden management hoped Kleiber would become the company's musical director, but he was not willing to commit himself. There were many competing demands for his services in Europe. At the 1951 Maggio Musicale in Florence, he conducted a celebrated production of "Les vêpres siciliennes", starring Maria Callas, and the world premiere of Haydn's "Orfeo ed Euridice", written 160 years earlier, (also with Callas). There were plans for his appointment to the Vienna Staatsoper, but they fell through, and his only operatic engagement in his native city was "Der Rosenkavalier" in 1951. In 1953 he conducted the complete "Ring" cycle in Rome; it was broadcast, but the recordings are thought to be lost. Between 1948 and 1955 he recorded a range of works for the Decca record company.