While the overall sound of this performance is less than ideal, hearing Treigle in a new role makes up for it. I became hooked on opera after my first performance in New Orleans of Faust with Treigle as the devil. I saw him many times after that and try to acquire any recording of him I can find. The rest of the cast gave fine performances.

I wanted to like this: the soloists are excellent as is the conducting, the orchestra is adequate, the chorus is not. But the real problem is the sound; murky is a generous word in this case. Anything Treigle did is worth preserving: he is just as committed and uncompromising here as in his stage roles. Meier, Wolff, and Di Virgilio all have their moments - when you can hear them. The sonic soup prevents one from adequately evaluating their performances. The chorus gets off to a rough start in the opening movement, sinking badly below pitch in the a capella section (when the orchestra reenters it's painful). They improve as the performance progresses. Werner Torkanowsky has some dramatic ideas about this work, but it's all undermined by the recording. For fans of the singers who have a high tolerance for murky sound.

I bought this recording principally to hear Meier and Treigle. The sound of the voices is quite distant so you have to listen hard and , frankly, some of it is very hard to hear. This recording is for the curious. As a recording of the Requiem there are many that are much better but Treigle is not on any of them. Beverly Wolff actually registers the best. Di Virgilio has pitch issues. The orchestra and chorus are better heard than the soloists.

Werner Torkanowsky, here leading the New Orleans Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra in 1973, was one of the great, underrated maestri, and this “live” recording presents him at his finest. The exemplary quartet includes Norman Treigle, who had previously sung the masterpiece in 1955 (with Herva Nelli, in New Orleans), 1960 (in Ottawa), 1962 (conducted by William Steinberg, in Pittsburgh), 1967 (opposite Beverly Sills, in Mexico City), and 1968 (under Torkanowsky, in New Orleans), and this was to be the final time he undertook the score. He sings with matchless intensity and an enormous dynamic range. The performance is magnificent.