All eyes and ears, inevitably, are on Bartoli, and she doesn't disappoint...The singing itself is ravishing. At the same time, the performance makes dramatic sense...Decca provide a superb Alidoro, an alluring Clorinda, inventive and elaborate continuo playing (fortepiano, cello, and double-bass), sensible but not excessive stage 'production'

Bartoli makes an inspired Cenerentola. Her tone-colours are not just more sensuous than those of her rivals; her imagination and feeling for detail add enormously to her vivid characterization...Few Rossini opera-sets have such fizz as this, and the recording is one of Decca's most vivid.