Manuel AUSENSI was one of the best baritones ever.

This performance is heartbreaking for all the wrong reasons. Moffo is in superb vocal condition, turning in a performance at once sparkling and deeply affecting, but nothing else about this performance is on the same exalted level. Di Stefano was endowed with the sweetest and most gorgeous imaginable instrument, and, however ingenuous they were, his musical instincts were invariably good, but we hear him here after a decade and a half of singing with a faulty technique has done irreparable damage to his voice, and his production is imperfect throughout: he has great difficulty inducing his voice to submit to his will. It’s heart breaking to hear Di Stefano sing the opening of “Un di felice,” because his expressive and musical instincts are so unerring but the voice will not quite do his bidding, and I’m not even talking about music in the upper register. His entire performance is like that, with only an isolated note here or there beautifully produced and lovely to hear. And whenever he’s singing with anybody else in the upper register, he’s louder than they are. The other problem with this performance is that it’s under rehearsed. For example, Moffo and Rescigno’s orchestra are not quite together in the opening of “Sempre libera,” working to come together as the performance unfolds. That sort of thing should have been sorted out in rehearsal.