Sutherland has only to trill or sing a rapid scale or sustain a high, pure note, and I warm to her afresh...Bonynge's conducting has its usual feeling for the spring of a rhythm and the build of a climax; the recording is clear and well balanced.

Pavarotti turns Leicester into a passionate Italian lover...as for Sutherland, she is at her most fully dramatic too...Bonynge directs an urgent account of an unfailingly enjoyable opera...the score is slightly cut, but this remains the most generally recommendable versions of this marvellously dramatic work.