It would perhaps have been presumptuous to have entitled this ''The best of Caballe'', though record companies have not been notably squeamish about such matters in the past. Personally I think it would have been justified. We know that one of the outstanding features of Caballe's career has been its variety, its catholicity; yet it is in this so-called bel canto repertoire that she has made her most distinctive contribution, and it was in the period during which these recordings were made that her singing was at its best.
Sampling that best in each of the three composers in turn, we hear a genuinely great artist. From the Rossini selection, take the solo from Armida: the scales, triplets and flourishes are exceptional in their evenness and fluency, so that purely as a technical display this is a dazzling piece of work. From Donizetti, the Gemma di Vergy aria provides a fine example of her quiet singing, the voice at its loveliest in the opening of ''Egli riede'' to harp accompaniment and again at the reprise. In Verdi, the opportunities are richer for subtlety of shading and variety of expression, and the tomb scene from Aroldo shows the deeper vocal colours matching a quietly intense dramatic involvement. She always found meaning in such music, where many singers rarely get beyond prettiness, whether of a happy or sad kind. Words mattered as well as melody (hear, for instance, the urgent delivery of the phrase about the man with a heart of stone in Armida, or the harsher tone of vindictiveness at ''Ah, scendi, indegno'' in Parisiana d'Este). Moreover, as is bound to happen, the Caballe of later years plays in the mind as one listens to these lovely examples of her prime, and we note that here the loud high-notes have not acquired the hardness that was soon to make them less of a pleasure, while the 'floating' pianissimo was much more an integral part of the voice, rather than the separable 'effect' which it became.
In many ways, the Verdi items, which I believe were recorded first, are the most impressive, for they show Caballe at her freshest on records. The Giorno di regno aria is a sparkler, and Caballe has exactly the right brightness of tone and lightness of touch. In the Alzira cabaletta she does some wonderfully neat, agile staccato singing, and in everything (but for an example, the linking at ''Ah, ogni cor'' in I due Foscari) she has a sure and rare feeling for style. There were, even then, faults and limitations (the makeshift trill, the aspirated gruppetti); but these are records to treasure, both for their unsurpassed examples of Caballe's art and for the pleasure of the programme itself.'