This is a solid, if occasionally rough-and-ready performance of I Puritani from 1967 (it can't be 1976 as stated on the cover). Kraus is, as always in this role, tremendously good. He projects an elegance and poise that is most winning and his high notes are to-die-for. D'Angelo makes a lovely Elvira, floating the melody of "Qui la voice" with style and grace. She has no trouble with the coloratura and grants us many high Ds and a great E-flat at the end of "Vien, diletto". Maffeo is a superb Riccardo; he has the type of Italian baritone that is in short supply today. Arie shows why he had such a high reputation in Europe. All the traditional cuts are taken and then some.The sound is clear and listenable, derived from a broadcast or a decent in-house tape - until the last two minutes of the performance which sound stitched on from another inferior source.Some advice: on disc two, skip tracks 1 and 2 and go to track 3 as the first two tracks repeat the end of disc one. Later on, skip tracks 12 and 13 as they are from a different opera altogether. Just go from the end of track 11 to track 14 and you'll be back on track (pun intended).There are some unadvertised bonus tracks. Tracks 27 and 28 give us Kraus singing "A te, o cara" from two different, unidentified performances. Track 29 gives us the "Vieni, fra queste braccia" portion of the final duet from the performance with Anna Maccianti (I think).Puritani lovers will want this, warts and all.

Music fine, but none of the tracks had names - it was all AudioTrack01, 02, etc.

Kraus, Maffeo and Arie (not Arias) very good. I wasn't so impresed with D'Angelo. Orchestra and chorus nice. There is a mistake- the conductor is not Ermano Wolf-Ferrari, since he was dead in 1948, but his nephew Manno Wolf-Ferrari.

Sills is thumbs down my favorite Elvira & Gedda was her worthy sparring partner. This comes very close to being equal to it. The only problem is the sound is somewhat rustic, but don't let be a deciding factor. d'Angelo & Kraus are also great sparring partners. This tenor role has to rank as one of the hardest to sing and both Gedda & Kraus are up these difficulties (Kraus does not attempt the F in alt,but then no one but Gedda & Pavarotti attempted it). This definitely deserves to be listened to. These Basques really showed their appreciation!

Among basses capable of the greatest Bel Canto the name of Raffaele Arie comes near the top.One can understand linguistic variations in the first part of his name, but to give his surname as ARIAS is hard to forgive. It is unlikely to show if anyone is searchin the surname ARIE ….Rank sloppiness rather than mere carelessness, I’m sorry. One of these days I shall still probably buy a copy of this nonethelessRRC