...all wrong and I get the impression that I am listening to a highlights disc, with all the transitions curtailed or omitted altogether. This is a drama that was never meant to be fast-moving and shortening it in this manner somehow diminishes it, like a postcard of the Sistine Chapel. Despite...

...my misgivings, this performance can hardly be faulted as the cast is more or less ideal. I have never been fond of Raimondi, but Carreras sounds attractively youthful, Freni appropriately fearless and regal, and Cappuccilli tenderly understated in the wonderful death scene. Although not...