Anja Harteros can boast both the high-octane tone and the necessary level of dramatic expression to make Aida credibly three dimensional…[Ekaterina Semenchuk makes] many subtle observations pertinent to the character's inner emotional world…In Kaufmann's hands 'Celeste Aida' registers as a magnificent soliloquy, and unusually he closes it with the immaculately soft finish Verdi asks for, but which few tenors can actually deliver.

This would always have been an event, a major (in several senses) studio opera recording. But it's also a performance absolutely worthy of the attention, and a superb addition to the catalogue.

Pappano’s conducting, indeed, in its combination of disciplined musicianship, red-blooded vitality and echt-Italian lyrical naturalness puts me in mind of Serafin’s 1955 EMI-La Scala Aida—not because the new set is like the old (Pappano’s temple, boudoir and triumphal dance episodes unfold with a vigorous sensuousness unique in my experience of the work, each phrase balletically shaped and ‘breathed’), but because of the Verdian genuineness each manages to communicate from first to last.

The cast really couldn't be bettered today...[Kaufmann's] sublime 'Celeste Aida' sets the tone for a recording that's full of fresh insights and attention to detail whilst never sounding clinical or micro-managed...But in the final analysis the laurel-wreath must go to Pappano's wonderful Santa Cecilia Orchestra, who capture every facet of the score's astonishing emotional and dynamic range.

The playing that Antonio Pappano obtains from the Santa Cecilia Orchestra wonderfully mixes refinement and power – it’s coloured with perfect finesse in the dances towards the end of the first act and in the nocturnal scene-painting that opens the third, while the great triumphal choruses have tremendous presence and energy.

Fluid and elegantly dramatic...Kaufmann, in excellent voice, offers a poetic “Celeste Aida”; Ms. Harteros is touching in the title role. But it’s the orchestra, airy and alert, that carries this fresh and invaluable new recording.

Verdi's epic of Ancient Egypt…comes thrillingly alive here in a superb new recording which could hardly be bettered today…[Pappano] leads the orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in a reading free of pomp and rhetoric that manages to combine crisp textural clarity with vivid drama. The playing is alert and precise throughout - enchantingly so in the delicious ballet music.