Never available before, this marvellous performance marked Karajan’s long-awaited return to the Vienna State Opera in 1978. It was also the notorious occasion when Franco Bonisolli threw a tantrum and walked out of the dress rehearsal. He was – miraculously – replaced at the eleventh hour by Domingo, who thereby completed a cast that has hardly been bettered before or since. It puts decisively in the shade the singers in the recent Covent Garden account on Opus Arte (2/03). Inspired no doubt by the reception he receives on first entering the pit, Karajan is at his most proactive, and the singers react with real conviction to complement their exemplary singing.

To be honest, the staging (Karajan’s own) and the sets are pretty conventional, but who cares when the score is projected with such confidence and the voices are of such rare quality! The youngish Domingo is the feisty troubadour of the title to the life, and he sings Manrico’s taxing music as if that were the easiest thing in the world. As his adversary, Count di Luna, Piero Cappuccilli is in firm, supple voice, giving a faultless account of ‘Il balen’ and fierily dramatic in the ensembles. Fiorenza Cossotto offers her appreciable all to Azucena, a role she made very much her own and one in which she has yet to be surpassed. As Ferrando, José Van Dam launches the opera with tremendous authority.

Raina Kabaivanska, the Leonora, may not have had a typically Verdian voice, but what she does with her resources is remarkable, combining a classic style – some beautifully etched phrasing – with a poise as a vocal and dramatic actress that is second to none, except perhaps Callas.

So it’s one vocal treat after another, cul- minating in a superlative Act 4. Drawbacks? Just two: intrusive applause, and Karajan inexplicably cuts the lovely little Leonora/ Manrico duet in Act 3 and also Leonora’s important cabaletta in Act 4. Sound, picture and direction are exemplary. This absorbing issue is highly recommended to all admirers of Verdi and great singing.