The 1980 reissue of this classic Callas set of 1959 (RLS737, 4/80—nla) brought a very commendable opening out of what had originally been sound more boxily mono than most of Callas's La Scala recordings of the period. This time the digital remastering has kept the sound more open (again, with no false stereo 'enhancing') while bringing out far more inner detail. The very start had me sitting up at the clarity of the triangle in the opening tutt, and the voices though placed rather close are caught with new fidelity. Last time the snag was that the set still came on six sides, where even the HMV set of 1972 with Caballe as Manon and Bruno Bartoletti conducting (SLS962, 9/72—nla) had squeezed the whole opera on to four sides. This time the advantage is double, because here for the first time with the benefit of DMM to bring LP sides of up to 40 minutes, you have each of the four acts on a separate side, a great benefit. Who knows, we might even ultimately find that the LP in this instance outdoes the CD version, when Acts 1 and 2 add up to more than 75 minutes (by just a few seconds).
Callas may present a rather formidable portrait of a young girl in Act 1, but here the final act with its long duet and the big aria ''Sola, perduta, abbandonata'', for once is far more than an epilogue to the rest, rather a culmination, with Callas at her very peak. Di stefano too is in the superb form and Serafin's pacing of the score is masterly. Fioravanti as Lescaut and Calabrese as Geronte sing well if not very characterfully.'