"Gabriella Tucci sang Aïda more frequently than any other role she attempted at the Met (39 performances)...What compels the house audience to long applause is the lengthy, beautifully sustained final note of [‘O patria mia’] and, even more than that, her leisurely and secure ascent to the top C at the aria’s climax – she takes it at the prescribed piano dynamic and crescendos as marked in the score. It is a lovely effect, perhaps the truest rendering of this fearsome moment on the broadcasts….in the end, a Corelli performance remains most notable for its feast of plangent, richly colored tone.” Paul Jackson, SIGN-OFF FOR THE OLD MET, pp.380-81

Irene Dalis, before her retirement from the stage in 1977, was a principal artist at New York’s Metropolitan Opera for 20 consecutive seasons, appeared regularly with Covent Garden, Berlin, Hamburg, Bayreuth and other major opera houses in Europe and the U. S. and was distinguished by the range and large number of roles in her repertoire. By the end of her career she had performed in every major opera house from Naples to San Francisco, and had 44 roles in her repertoire.

Recognised from the beginning as a major dramatic talent, she was most often engaged to sing operas by Verdi, Wagner, and Strauss, eventually performing every major dramatic mezzo-soprano role by these operatic giants. Dubbed the 'Prince of tenors', Corelli possessed handsome features and a charismatic stage presence which endeared him to audiences. He had a long and fruitful partnership with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City between 1961 and 1975. Associated in particular with the spinto and dramatic tenor roles of the Italian repertory, he was celebrated universally for his powerhouse voice, electrifying top notes, clear timbre, a very elegant and passionate singing and remarkable performances. Opera News stated that Corelli's lowered-larynx technique "resulted in [a] cavernous sound even in high-flying passages, where it gained brilliance. Regulating the breath pressure, the tenor was able to reduce this sound while retaining the core of the voice in a diminuendo, or even a morendo on a high B-flat, the effect requested by Verdi at the end of 'Celeste Aida'."