Cedolins is wonderfully precise in negotiating the trills and staccatos of Luisa's music...Alvarez is quite excellent as Rodolfo...His is a warm, passionate performance, thrilling singing but also wonderfully tender...Nucci is in fine fettle as Luisa's father...Surian makes a cold, implacable Walter, while Rafal Siwek's saturnine Wurm is splendid...Renzetti's tempos are always spot on and he maintains tension well.

The undoubted star of the show is Marcelo Álvarez. He ranges through the whole gamut of expression from quiet Donizettian lyricism to an Otello-like intensity...Nucci was of pensionable age at the time of this recording, but you would never guess it from his firmly delivered tones...Álvarez, Cedolins and Nucci are all on their top form [in the Finale], and the whole performance and its staging catch fire with a vengeance.