Acoustical quality of the recording not great, but this was the most heart-rending performance of the title role I have ever heard. I am usually jaded by Un bel di, but Olivero's version made me cry. The way she took the ending of the third act keeps haunting me. Her silvery voice is not voluptuous like Tebaldi, for example. but she lives the role from the inside.Rest of the cast also good and Rescigno supplies his usual excellent idiomatic conducting.

In many ways Butterfly was an unusual role for Magda Olivero as she is more commonly associated with the verismo repertoire (although one could argue that Madama Butterfly lies right on the outskirts of that genre). In the event, she is very effective in the role. Her voice doesn't have the sheer opulence of Leontyne Price or the power of Renata Tebaldi, but what Olivero has is a keen ability to tell a story in all its colors within her means. She never forces or pushes and it works for her. Listen to the specific colors she chooses for "Ieri son salita" or the way she interprets "Un bel di" as if her fantasy has been meticulously planned and only now is she giving voice to it. Her tears in the last scene are sincere, if a little over-the-top; here she slips over into melodrama. Yet it's all part of Olivero's magic.Cioni sings Pinkerton well though his top C at the end of Act One wavers a bit. Zanasi is first-rate as Sharpless as Cadoni's Suzuki. Mariano Caruso is a deliciously reptilian Goro and Aldo Giannini is a terrifying Bonze with a fine bass voice. Rescigno's leadership is very supportive in the best sense.The sound is listenable, if mediocre: tinny, cramped, fluctuating volume levels and all. But it's worth enduring for Olivero's special performance!