Berganza's role in Decca's Opera Gala is an exclusively Mozartian one. Here she is, from the Cherubino, Sesto, Fiordiligi (and Dorabella) of 1962, to the concert arias of 1989, in an anthology of thrilling technical virtuosity and generally vivid character vignettes.
Between her Glyndebourne and Met debuts as Cherubino, Berganza recorded the role with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir John Prit-chard. The spirited determination behind the breathless energy of her ''Non so piu'', and the dream-like rapture of her ''Voi che sapete'' are un-forgettable. She has never, for me, entirely seized the soul of Sesto: her ''Parto, parto'', with Gervase de Peyer's robust clarinet solos and, later, her ''Deh, per questo istante solo'' with Istvan Kertesz, offers more vocal beauty than interpretative reward.
Her Fiordiligi, too, is as technically faultless as you are likely to hear: every turn, trill and semiquaver of ''Come scoglio'' and ''Per pieta'' is brilliantly articulated, yet a little of the passionate hauteur between the notes is missing. Dorabella tunes in more closely to the core of the character, while the recently re-released later concert arias, with the Vienna CO under Gyorgy Fischer, remain profoundly eloquent.'