My vote here goes to the Decca recording under Peter Maag, though that is not to present it with a complete bill of health or to put either of the others into permanent quarantine. In fact, if we were simply to go through the casts, honours would be fairly evenly spread. Maazel (DG) has the most touching, aptly-cast heroine in Ricciarelli, yet Caballe, though at first sounding too mature, has the more lovely voice, while Moffo is firmer in tone than Ricciarelli and more assured in certain technical matters than Caballe. Maag has the most fully human of the Millers in Sherrill Milnes, though both Bruson (with Maazel) and MacNeil have a deeper lustre in their voices. Cleva has the most stylish of the three distinguished Rodolfos in Bergonzi, but both Pavarotti and Domingo are on top form, fully committed in feeling as in vocal resource. If we look further down the lists we see Cleva strengthen his performance with Verrett, who makes the somewhat colourless character of Federica memorable in the right way (Obraztsova, with Maazel, in the wrong, and Anna Reynolds not at all). Of the villains, Ganzarolli (Maazel) is the nastiest but partly because his singing is the least enjoyabie, Van Allen introduces an appropriate snarl into his Italian pronunciation, and in the Cleva recording there is a sonorous repertory double-act by Tozi and Flagello who might have wandered in from almost any other opera.
The deciding factor is not solely the conducting but a feeling for the work which may originate in the conductor and has spread to all concerned. They all give the impression of being in love with this opera. From the start, where Cleva and Maazel, in their different ways, appear as good workmen doing a businesslike job, Maag has gone to the heart of the score, finding its seriousness as well as its fire. Sometimes an allegro moderato comes out more like an andantino, but the slower speeds are usually well placed so that pace and tension are not lost. The last act is specially fine containing what I think should be regarded as among the gramophone classics—the two duets of Luisa, first with her father, then with Rodolfo. Ray Minshull's production for Decca is unobtrusively effective in creation of atmosphere, to which the London Underground makes an ominous contribution from time to time. One query. The change of disc occurs in the first scene of Act 2 with nearly six minutes to go. Would it not have been possible (some recent issues have run to this length) to add to the 69'14'' of the first disc, reducing the second to 68'51'' in length?'