R E V I E W:

In recording and performance this Delyse issue has the edge on all the others listed above. Mr Bruscantini's Umberto is wonderfully well acted. Miss Scotto's maid (later mistress), is also plausible, not quite as sweetly sung perhaps as Miss Moffo's Serpina in the RCA-Victor version under Ferrara, but vivid and idiomatic. The playing of the Virtuosi is just that: Mr Fasano gets great variety of light and shade from his players. His choice of tempo is unfailingly defensible. In short, a delightful performance of an opera which historically stands in an important position.

If I confess to a waning affection for the work it is because it sounds progressively wan and tedious to my ear. I suspect that it is performed and recorded less for its musical charm than for the relative simplicity of the forces required to perform it. From our point of view its great drawback is that the part of the mute servant Vespone doesn't emerge at all; cleverly though footsteps and such extraneous sounds may be managed. This music has begun to seem to me much as I suspect Mozart sounds in the ears of those who detest that genius (there are such people). "Dapper and pettifogging!" Still, there must be a first time for everyone. "Stizzoso, mio stizzoso" as sung by Miss Scotto is quite likely to convert the willing and the characterization in Mr Bruscantini's "Son imbrogliato" is an object lesson. Don't let me put you off.

P.H-W., Gramophone [11/1966] Reviewing original release