Music : Les Pêcheurs De Perles [Highlights]

Rating: - lovely singing- poor sound
It's always a pleasure listening to Alain Vanzo - the 'Nadir' of this live highlights recording. Spoorenberg also is in very good voice, though I've never heard of her before or since. The 'Nourabad' and 'Zurga' are no less than average.

So, the singing is lovely, sometimes even wonderful. Why then is it only a three star recording? Well, it's a highlights-edition without the libretto (meaning that noone really understands what this is all about). It's also recorded live, not always bad from a theatrical point of view, but the sound quality of this recording is unfortunately rather poor.

But, if the beauty of the singing itself means more to You than the sound quality, and if You like the idea of the essence of an opera caught on one disc instead of two, this is very good listening for hardly no money at all.

This recording was my first version of 'the pearlfishers', and I loved it. Today, when I own three versions of the opera, my first choice is the Vanzo/Micheau/Bacquier complete 1959 live recording with Rosenthal conducting. Although, for newcomers to the opera, I can recommend this recording as an introduction to some of the loveliest music ever written!