Alwyn, with those modifications presents the developments in the story with Puccinian sureness, and the idiom, harmonically rich and warmly lyrical, grateful for singers and players alike, brings occasional Puccinian echoes which, along with reminiscences of other composers, add to the music's impact rather than making it seem merely derivative. So in Act 2, Miss Julie's growing uncertainty over Jean's love is reflected in a passage (disc 2 track 5) which initially brings an echo of the heroine's last solo in Walton's Troilus and Cressida, and builds to a passionate climax which erupts first in echoes of Fanciulla del West and then in a direct quotation of the main theme of the trio from Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, a motif repeated later. By any reckoning this is a confidently red-blooded opera, and I hope the success of this recording will encourage a staged production. It certainly deserves one.

The performance under Vilem Tausky is even finer than I had remembered, strong and forceful with superb singing from all the principals. Jill Gomez is magnificent in the title-role, producing ravishing sounds, not least in the glorious mid-summer night solo, expansively melodic but with wide-leaping intervals, which comes at the end of the first of the two scenes of Act 1. Benjamin Luxon gives a wonderfully swaggering portrait of the unscrupulous manservant, vocally firmer than on almost any of his other recordings. Della Jones is splendidly characterful too, relishing her venomous cry of ''Bitch!'' when, at the very end of scene 1, she realizes Julie and Jean have gone off together. John Mitchinson is characterful too, in his drunken scene reminding me of Peter Pears as Albert Herring. The two discs, as before, come with a libretto and an excellent essay by Rodney Milnes, together with illuminating quotations from the composer, all—alas—in microscopic print. I only hope that Lyrita will be encouraged by the success of this opera issue to release Tippett's A Midsummer Marriage as well, a set to which the company now has the rights.

-- Edward Greenfield, GRAMOPHONE (3/1993) Review of the original CD release