This set was none too well received by Philip Hope-Wallace when it first appeared in 1959. Twenty years later, in Opera on Record (Hutchinson: 1979), Harold Rosenthal was even less complimentary about it. While one admits that Serafin was by this late period in his career no longer able quite to capture the effervescence of this, the most endearing of Donizetti's operas, his cast has much to commend it, not least the Italian flavour of all four principals. Carteri manages a smile in her voice, also the flirtatious edge that is another part of Adina's nature, even if her legato isn't all it should be. Alva was always a delightfully timid and lovelorn Nemorino on stage. Some if not all of that comes across in his attractive though occasionally one-dimensional account of the role here. Panerai gives Belcore just the kind of puffed-up profile the role demands and sings with that vibrantly characterful style of his. However, the real star of the show is Taddei's ebullient, amusing Dulcamara, none better on disc. His ''Udite, udite, rustici'' is a locus classicus of buffo singing, both vocally and as an interpretation: listen to his cry of ''tromba'' and the spring in his voice in the following passage-superb.
Enough of the work's spirit is here exposed for this to be a good buy at bargain-or indeed any-price. Should Decca see fit to reissue, in the same category, their even earlier set with Gueden and di Stefano (3/56), a choice between the two might be difficult. The recording is good early stereo, excellently 'digitalized'. CfP provide no libretto, but the diction of the cast is so exemplary that anyone with even a smattering of Italian will be able to discern what is being sung.'