Ralph Moore TOP 1000 REVIEWER 5.0 out of 5 starsA neglected verismo treat March 7, 2013 Despite its initial popularity, this verismo blockbuster has fallen on hard times. The only other of Wolf-Ferrari's operas to be performed with anything like any regularity is his elegant domestic farce "Il segreto di Susanna". After success with this witty opera buffa, the composer turned his hand to replicating the flavour of the hour and followed Puccini, Mascagni and Giordano down the verismo route; indeed, the crowded street scenes have a good deal in common with their music and the impassioned duets are very reminiscent of the screaming matches we know and love from more popular works in that genre. In any case, this is the only complete version available and it really is very good. Veteran Alberto Erede keeps the big score together expertly and I am particularly impressed by the way an all-British cast (with the exception of Canadian tenor André Turp) gives a vital and convincing facsimile of Neapolitan passion with the soloists, the uncredited chorus (presumably the BBC Symphony Orchestra Chorus) and an excellent boys' choir all singing idiomatic Italian as if to the manner born. The orchestra is really superb. The sound is from a radio broadcast. There is a little occasional interference in the form of papery rustling, fleeting drop-outs, the odd barely audible pre-echo and some wavering in pitch but nothing to affect materially our enjoyment of decent radio stereo.