To each his own, but my personal favourites this time round were: Smirnov's Lensky (the young poet perfectly caught in his tone and style), Caruso's Otello (the nobility of that voice, the dignity of his passions, sovereign in any company), Martinelli's pre-electric ''E un riso gentil'' (a gaiety not often associated with his singing, graceful, rhythmic, beautiful in its pure, uncompromised tenor tone), Patzak's farewell to Mignon (a real communication, tenderly, freshly voiced), Devries's Georges Brown (head-voice, trills, enchantment despite the somewhat uneventful preoccupation with the melody of Robin Adair)... and Bjorling's 1944 ''Nessun dorma'', which I surely had misremembered as a lustily prosaic utterance when it now seems rapt and poetic, lingering deliciously with the loves and hopes of the starlit night, thrilling in its leap to prophesied victory.
Passing notes on some of the others: Slezak at his best in ''Magische Tone'', even though the last note really wants the kind of head-voice Devries produces so beautifully in his Reverie; Tauber so much clearer in the runs of ''Il mio tesoro'' than remembered; Gigli even more crude than memory had insisted in the declamatory style of this ''No, Pagliaccio non son''; Roswaenge showing so little understanding of legato even when he has it in view, as in this ''Ach, so fromm''.
Transfers: the Clement is heard with clearer definition on Romophone ((CD) 82002-2—to be reviewed later); for the Tamagnos, different versions of both Otello's solos are given and far more of the voice's metal is captured in the recent EMI La Scala Edition, Vol. 1 (4/94); a BBC technician confronted by the Lauri-Volpi said ''But he sounds as though he's singing down a telephone''; Melchior's ''Wintersturme'', in this particular recording (DA1227) has never (in my hearing) sounded so good. Presentation: some good photographs, not much readily discernible logic in the sequence, though it works well enough (query: except for ending with the Schipa?). Title: ''Legendary'' in such a context is a cheap-thrill word, an old-style Hollywood publicity word, and has had its day.'