I had this performance years ago on the Legato label. It really is one of Donizetti's greatest achievements. There are some cuts here, but we get more of the opera than was usually played at that time.Souliotis was all of 22 when she sang this performance. One hears the instinctive phrasing, the innate ability to mold the arias and scenes into a coherent whole. Her voice was lighter in color here than it was in 1972 (OD #11834). She wavers a bit on her penultimate B-flat, but it's not a disaster. She was probably getting very tired (Anna is a long role) and hadn't learned to pace herself yet. She digs into the text with passion and justifies the enthusiasm opera lovers felt about her at the time. It wasn't to last long, but that's another story.Horne sings very impressively though the role lies a little too high for her. She and Souliotis interpolate a lengthy cadenza towards the end of their big Act Two duet. Some of the ornaments she employs would be reused in her Rossini roles to better effect. Domingo is good though, as with Horne, it's really too high for him (he ducks the written top Cs in his first aria). Baker is marvelous, making one wish her part was bigger. Cava is a sturdy Enrico. Lewis conducts very capably.The sound is good, the voices heard well over the orchestra. The disc breaks aren't great, the fillers interesting.

Interesting to hear this despite Souliotis losing it at the end. A joy though to hear young Domingo and Janet Baker in rep not normally associated with them.

Elena Souliotis was a vocal phenomenon. At 20 she was the complete package ready to go. Here at 22 in Carnegie Hall she is a touching Anna with exciting vocal voltage ready to be called upon when needed. Her rival for Henry's love, Jane Seymour is the wonderful Marilyn Horne whose distinctive free flowing mezzo gives a dynamic picture of a Seymour distraught with guilt and passion. Carlo Cava is a bitingly vengeful Henry.There are two bonuses: the robust Percy of Domingo who sings with ineffable tenderness of his love for Anna In the confrontation with Henry. This is early Domingo and he seems to have eschewed the role soon after. The other is a beautifully sung Smerton from Janet Baker.The scene for Percy and Rochefort in the final act is cut. Although a loss musically, and for the fact that we have less of Domingo that we might have, it is understandable in a live performance, interrupting as it does the inexorable approach of Anna's death.The sound is good, some moments of congestion as though the recorded volume is too high, notwithstanding. The finale of the great scene for Anna and Seymour in Act 11 is rather marred in this way.