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Title: Abominable Sound
Review: This l954 live performance from New Orleans confirms that de los Angeles was as glorious a Butterfly on stage as she is in her two commercial recordings, one of which offers di Stefano as Pinkerton and the other Bjoerling. All three versions reveal a gorgeously sung, dramatic characterization. This recording, however, has the worst sound of any Opera d'Oro I have heard, and that certainly puts it in a (low) class by itself. Not to beat a dead horse, but it sounds as though the microphone were being held by an audience member with whooping cough sitting in the middle of the orchestra pit. The rest of the cast seem adequate but no match for those on either of the commercial recordings. The price is tempting (it tempted me into buying my twelfth Butterfly), but the set is virtually unlistenable.
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