If this isn't one of Opera Depot's best sellers, it should be. Other writers have already commented below on how good everyone is in this performance; I agree with them and will add only a few thoughts of my own.One can hear that everyone is "connecting" here, far more so than in Colin Davis's studio recording made about this time with a number of the same singers. The singers are all listening and responding to each other so that the recitatives are suspenseful and alive, not the dubious slogs they can become when singers are just sight-reading the words. Baker and Minton have a similarity in timbre so one has to stay on one's toes to catch who is singing when.Baker is brilliant, superb in catching Vitellia's snobbish, spoiled personality and yet human enough to believe she has had a true change of heart at the end. Her voice is captured in its absolute prime. Yes, she rewrites the end of the "Vengo, aspettate" trio to avoid a few high Bs and the lightning quick high D, but one can hear that elsewhere. Minton shows why she was so valued with her terrific, heartfelt singing and Howells is also a fine Annio. Cahill is a lovely Servilia (it is her aria that is the catalyst for Vitellia's change of heart at the end). Lloyd makes something of Publio, his distinctive bass a relief after all the higher voices. Hollweg is a superb Tito, really digging into the text and making the emperor's anguish believable. Pritchard leads an exciting performance, preserved in excellent stereo sound. The audience, understandably, is very enthusiastic.All Mozart lovers should have this!

The cast, the conductor, and the sound quality are all superb. I am reminded of what an absolute stage animal Janet Baker was. It amazes me when people refer to her as a remote, cool, grand, and rather restrained artist. I once saw a review of her performances at the ENO claiming that she always sounds as if she doesn't enjoy singing! While I regret that she never took on the role of Sesto, it is wonderful to have her as this passionate, fiery Vitellia. Yvonne Minton is equally strong, and in fact there isn't a weak member of the cast, although Stuart Burrows on the commercial recording does have a slight advantage over Hollweg. I recommend this set with great enthusiasm.

This recording represents the third consecutive revival of what everyone knew was a classic cast. The production by Besch and Stoddart had been new in 1974; Janet Baker, Yvonne Minton, Anne Howells, Teresa Cahill, Robert Lloyd sang it all three seasons. Colin Davis conducted the 1974 original, very powerfully; it remains a puzzle that his 1976 studio recording with almost all this cast (Lucia Popp replacing Cahill) was tepid. Will his 1974 semi-staged Proms performance with this cast ever surface? It would include Eric Tappy, a very fine Tito. John Pritchard, conducting the 1975 and 1976 reveals, was a perfect Mozartian, and he kept the force that Davis had unleashed, with yet more orchestral lucidity. Minton, always superb, grew each year in intensity in the role of Sesto, and had just been especially acclaimed when this production visited La Scala with this cast. Howells and Cahill were never better; I feel the fortune now of having them as regular house artists then. But the greatest fascination was Janet Baker, markedly different in each year of this revival. (Her 1974 one was freest but also most restrained; her 1975 one was vocally troubles but also flooded with new colours.) She has neither the top D flat (omitted) nor the chest depths (sketched) for Vitellia, and yet what she provides is more imaginative than any who have those virtues. In the Act One trio, the contrast of the inward pianissimo triplets “O dei!”and the fortissimo top note in the next phrase: searing.

This is a superb performance far superior to the commercial recording.