This was the first opera recording made by the digital process, as Decca proudly told us five years ago. Now that it appears on CD the benefits of the then-new system can probably be felt fully for the first time. It is beautifully clear and spacious in sound and cleanly balanced. But, perhaps by the same token, I find—as others have—the set a little aseptic and certainly untheatrical, at least until the Dungeon Quartet, which really has historic bite. This is undoubtedly a studio-bound recording, with the kind of earnest but slightly dull feeling of many Chicago sets. Against that must be put Hildegard Behrens's involved and appealing Leonore, though as JBS pointed out in his ''Quarterly Retrospect'', her tone and that of the Pizarro and Florestan often lacks a true centre. One longs for the wholly secure tone of past Leonores while admiring all Behren's sincerity and conviction, especially in the dialogue. Similarly Theo Adam makes a menacing Pizarro but wobbles occasionally. Hoffmann's strained Florestan simply won't do. The Marzelline and Jaquino are good, the Rocco and Fernando even better. Before long, I hope EMI will re-master its famous Klemperer recording for CD. It remains in a class of its own, though Solti's, carefully prepared and excellently recorded version, shows up the advantages of CD in many ways, and will probably satisfy those who want a CD Fidelio at once.'