This show marked the return of Sutherland to Sydney and was very well received at the time. She sings all 4 heroines and while you might wonder if she has the right voice for Antonia, the whole thing is a vocal tour de force for her. The supporting cast was not bad and represented the strengths of the AO at the time. Elisabeth Connell represents luxury casting as Antonia's mother, Henri Wilden has a credible French tenor style (he was Mauritian) in the title role and while he is no George Thill he gets through the part with credit apart from some nasty sound at the end of Act I. I never liked Raymond Myers relentlessly nasal tone (perhaps it is the memory of a friend caricaturing him by singing the Toreador song entirely through his hooter) but he certainly sounds villainous. The less said about Graeme Ewer in the comprimario tenor parts the better.Bonynge's edition has the virtue of coherence and concision though nobody today would play Munich after Venice. One irritation is an imbecilic radio announcer making utterly banal comments over the music ("Applause for the curtain", "Sutherland enters" "Hoffmann alone"). This does detract a lot from enjoyment of the performance, but the set is a good complement to the Decca studio recording with Domingo. Glad I bought it.

Dame Joan is, of course, the major draw here and rightly so. Her Doll Song is brilliant with accurate staccati and trills, but some effortful high notes. By 1974 this aria lay about a half-step too high for her complete vocal comfort though she still is dazzling. It is not helped by being taken at too fast a pace by Bonynge. Her Giulietta is acted very well and she and Tourangeau sing the Barcarolle gorgeously. Antonia and Stella are the best of her heroines here. The trio is thrilling and Stella's final E-flat (in Bonynge's refashioned Epilogue quartet) dead on.Hoffmann is a long and difficult part and despite a few blips, Wilden is excellent. He sang a beautiful Gerald to Sutherland's Lakme just a few years later. Myers acts and sings the Villains very handsomely. I was surprised he didn't transpose the Diamond aria, but he manages a credible G# at the end. Graeme Ewer hams it up as the four servants. It's a shame the Muse's opening aria had not been restored when this performance was given as Tourangeau would have sung it very well. She is a marvelous Muse/Nicklausse all the same. All the singers handle the plethora of French dialogue with skill. The supporting cast includes such singers as Anson Austin and Elizabeth Connell. Bonynge's edition of this much manipulated score is most enjoyable.The sound is excellent, the acts laid out conveniently on three discs. Highly recommended!

I bought the MP3 version of this recording mostly for Joan Sutherland, so the review will almost wholly be about her.First off, the sound is great. However, at the moment, these tracks are not labeled! Do not let that stop you from buying this recording, though, as it is an amazing document and a must-have performance for any serious Joan Sutherland enthusiast.The recording took place, as you've almost certainly already noticed, in 1974; that was Miss Sutherland's debut with Opera Australia. She is in very good voice, besides for a couple slightly under the center of the pitch E-flats in the Doll Song and another one or two more difficult-sounding (but on-pitch) Ds. Miss Tourangeau also does a great job, and the duet in the beginning of the second act is beautifully done.Finally, the CDs are split into acts, the first one including the prologue and act one, the second one act two, and the third one act three and the epilogue. If you have the studio recording, you can easily fill in a few of the more important tracks' names, since they are split very well.Ultimately a great buy!P.S.: The back cover has an incorrect spelling of the word \""orchestra,\"" adding an extra \""h\"" at the beginning.

The sound on this release IS fantastic, brilliant and clear as a bell. Sutherland is in 95% best form. This was her debut with the Australian Opera, and the pressure must have been immense. The Ds and Ebs are not her very best–she had sung the same roles just 5 weeks earlier at the Met with not the slightest difficulty, but there are some slightly tentative sounds at the very top. This does not detract from the astounding flash of the Doll Song. People who are used to the CRAWL through this aria heard over the past two decades will be amazed to hear the most difficult lines tossed off with abandon, dazzle, beauty and speed. Sutherland’s Giulietta was always underestimated, for she sang the duet with the tenor with passion and force, as she does here. The performance highlight is her Antonia. She sounds possessed in the great trio, never losing tonal beauty, but singing with great energy, warmth and volume. Unfortunately, this is possibly the crudest bunch of male voices with which she ever sang. Wilden and Raymond Myers (who yells all four villains) sing in an unyielding forte throughout–and Wilden’s “Aimé, Dieu puissant” high B in the Doll Scene has to be heard to be believed. Graeme Ewer’s servants are so overdrawn that one wishes Dr. Miracle would finish him off as well. Luckily, Tourangeau, in perhaps her best role, is in wonderful form, and her natural French dialogue is a rebuke to the overacting men.I absolutely recommend this to any Sutherland fan or to the many people who think that today’s Olympias and Antonias have any real virtuosity. The track markings, hélas, are bad. For example, the Doll Song is buried in a half-hour track which includes Coppélius’ and Nicklausse’s arias, plus the entrance of the chorus and Olympia herself. However, in Act III, “Elle a fui”, which begins in the same track as the spoken introduction, has two tracks within the aria itself, each time there is a pause–three separate tracks for a two-verse aria!If you want to hear one of the true greats of the world of song working at her almost-best, do not be deterred by any of my complaints. You will hear a feast of great singing from her, some wonderful work by Tourangeau, exciting conducting by Bonynge (there is enormous clout in his pacing of the Antonia trio, for example), all in magnficent sonics. It is worth the modest price for Joan alone.