This is a wonderful concert, as if done at Versailles as a homage to Rossini, who is played by an actor sitting in a box. Everyone is in second empire costume, everything is great fun, including Caballé playing the castanets. There are minor musical blemishes, as they filmed this live, but that matters little. Horne excels in Semiramide, the Spanish song in the intermission, and the Tancredi duet with Caballé, Raimondi and Ramey in arias from Il Viaggio a Reims, Caballé in Guillaume Tell, Araiza in the Stabat Mater; everything is expertly guided by Abbado. Truly a Rossini feast. This should be issued on DVD, i would rush immediately to the next shop to buy it.
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