Why is it that this performance in low­fi and indifferent black­and­white picture‚ and in a distinctly old­fashioned staging‚ has become a legend among collectors of opera on video to the extent of becoming a VHS best­seller? The answer lies in the quality of execution of a once­in­a­lifetime cast‚ supported by idiomatic conducting and playing at the San Carlo in Naples back in 1958. Tebaldi had already proved at the Maggio Musicale at Florence in 1953 under Mitropoulos that Leonora was to be among her most successful roles‚ and here she confirms the fact in spades with her lustrous‚ effortlessly shaped and eloquent traversal of the role. By her side she has the incomparable Corelli‚ singing his first Don Alvaro‚ and revealing that his brilliant‚ exciting yet plangent tone is precisely the right instrument to project Alvaro’s loves and sorrows. At this stage of his career his thrilling upper register and incisive delivery of the text were at their most potent‚ as he makes abundantly clear in aria and duet. As his antagonist‚ Bastianini sings with the kind of Verdian élan seemingly now extinct among his breed. He may not be the most subtle of Verdian baritones‚ but here his macho approach ideally suits Don Carlo’s vengeful imprecations. If that were not enough vocal splendour for one occasion‚ there is Christoff – yet another member of the cast at the peak of his career – intoning Padre Guardiano’s dignified utterances in that unique if not always entirely Italianate manner of his. Renato Capecchi for long made the part of Melitone his own: one can see and hear why here in his amusing yet never­overstated sense of the role’s comic possibilities. Dominguez may not have quite tough enough an upper register to cope with the tough demands Verdi places on his Preziosilla‚ but she is very much part of a team at the top of its collective bent. The comprimario roles are well­catered for. The voices are caught with very little distortion in goodish sound. The original film has suffered some deterioration over the years‚ but its recent restoration yields far better results than was once the case on dim VHS copies: this DVD derives from RAI’s original master copy. Pleasure is completed by the bonus of a recent interview with Tebaldi in which she discusses‚ among other matters‚ how sympathetic she found the role of Leonora when she first undertook it in 1953 at Florence. It is also a pleasure to see how the years have been kind to her presence and features.