Giuseppe Verdi

“This is an issue of major importance, which all lovers of Verdi should acquire, since it will enable them to hear about 45 minutes of his most mature music which is otherwise not available… For this production…Bertrand de Billy came as close as possible to presenting Verdi's score as originally written for the Paris Opera... the opera... a work of such grandeur and intimate passion that it carries all before it, and on the whole, apart from some languorous tempos, de Billy's conducting is idiomatic. Don Carlos... is given a high profile by the ardour of Ramón Vargas. The two leading ladies, singing Elisabeth and Eboli respectively, have surprisingly similar voices, guttural and raw, but exciting... Bo Skovhus is Rodrigue, the work's most moving figure, well up to his role.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2006 ****

“This live 1990 recording of Verdi's most sombre score features some excellent principals; Renato Bruson's Doge, Giuseppe Sabbatini's Gabriele and Roberto Scandiuzzi's Fiesco all stand out.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2005 ****

“A fine tribute to the man who led us so rewardingly along opera's byways. …the late and lamented Patric Schmid. It is largely thanks to him and his colleagues at Opera Rara that we now have a fairly comprehensive familiarity and a greatly enhanced appreciation of early 19th-century Italian opera, a period which until recently was not only neglected but pretty widely despised.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2006