The first seven Puccini heroines are all one and the same person, namely Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, who establishes a suitable character for Anna, heroine of Le villi, and maintains it for Tosca, Manon, Musetta and the rest. She sings divinely, with the high phrases of the Rondine aria taking a direct flight to Heaven's gates. But her Tosca does not suffer, her Butterfly has no vision, and Musetta's song is sung by Mimi. On the reverse side of the record Mimi appears in person, with Ileana Cotrubas entering the soul of the flower-girl, and when Renata Scotto sings the first phrases of Angelica's ''Senza mamma'' she brings us immediately into the full experience of emotions, musical and dramatic. She is at her best here, an artist in the Muzio tradition. Least satisfactory in the collection are the two excerpts from Turandot, Katia Ricciarelli pulling Liu's phrases out of shape and Eva Marton giving a conventional and in the climax rather effortful account of ''In questa reggia''. But of course it might be argued that Turandot has no rightful place among Puccini's heroines anyway. '