Roussel's score is exotic and colorful and makes great use of a large orchestra and chorus; indeed there is as much purely instrumental and choral music as there is solo singing in this work (it's almost constructed like one of Rameau's opera-ballets), and both orchestra and chorus are superb. Nicolai Gedda is the benevolent Ratan-Sen, and he sings with authority and sensitivity; Marilyn Horne is the warm-timbred, alluring Padmavati, and José van Dam menaces as Alaouddin. No libretto is included but a track-by-track synopsis suffices. This is a fascinating work, in a splendid performance.

--Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com