Giuditta was Lehar’s last stage work and the peak of his compositional development. Written for the Vienna State Opera, it is a highly ambitious score, containing some fiendishly difficult vocal writing and using a large orchestra featuring mandolin and other exotic instruments. For this recording some two hours of music have been compressed into 80 minutes by means of snips here and there and the omission of a couple of subsidiary numbers (which incidentally may be heard in the excerpts from the 1958 Decca recording on London, 6/95 – nla). The piece has a Carmen-like story, about the disenchanted wife of an innkeeper who persuades a soldier to desert, before eventually abandoning and ruining him as she goes from lover to lover. The best-known number is Giuditta’s “On my lips every kiss is like wine”, here gloriously sung by Deborah Riedel; but the leading male role was written for Tauber, and there are some marvellous and demanding tenor solos, equally superbly sung by the ever impressive Jerry Hadley. Despite writing for the opera house, Lehar remained faithful to his formula of interspersing the music for the principal couple with sprightly dance numbers for a comedy pair, here in the hands of Naomi Itami and Lynton Atkinson. Assisted by Richard Bonynge’s lilting conducting, these contribute richly to the appeal of the recording. I only hope that such an adventurous and generously filled CD will succeed in spreading the appeal of this ravishingly beautiful score.'