Genis Carreras

All of these are live recordings so the sound is quite variable. The standard square box contains separate soft plastic sleeves in which the cds are inserted. The advantage is that the cds are well protected (minor risk for scrapes compared to cardboard), but there is no information printed on the sleeve since it is made of plastic. There is some basic information printed on each cd (name, composer, cd #, the act/s and the date of the recording). There is also a small 24pg booklet that introduces the box including some photos as well as content description for each disc (opera, singers, time and location as well as a list of the separate tracks). I have been collecting these boxes for a while and always find it worthwhile as there are gems nicely interspersed in these collections. By Moonfish

Includes song(s) by Georg Friedrich Handel, Alessandro Scarlatti, Alessandro Stradella, Gaetano Donizetti, Christoph W. Gluck.

What does it say that of the six available videos of this opera, the two best were made in 1958 and 1978? Something about the Verdian style and grand Verdi voices, I'm sure, but I'll leave the details to you. The Price/Giacomini performance from the Met is a pretty boring affair, the Urmana/Giordani perfectly acceptable but thrill-free, and the Gorchakova/Gergiev/St. Petersburg original version is both in another class and not particularly idiomatic. Both Hardy DVDs–the '58 from Naples with Tebaldi and Corelli, and this one, from La Scala in 1978, present the opera as the "real thing"..

–Robert Levine