O'Neill, in good voice, also knows a deal about his role's needs... where are the Manricos about today who can sing the part so securely? Anne Mason, like Opie, makes the most of her text. She declaims her narrations with real conviction and throughout simulates a sense of live portrayal.'
Gramophone
'Whatever the language, it's an inspired score... David Parry's handling of the score and the LPO's playing bring out its full vigour and brilliance together with a large measure of the work's underlying depth - the tense and fateful passions at its heart... O'Neill's Manrico commands respect... he sings with fine fullness of tone in the heroic passages and with skill and scrupulous care in the gentler lyrical music... Clive Bayley calls to mind singers of earlier times... the vocal production has a kind of solidity we don't hear often nowadays. Alan Opie is totally admirable, making a real character out of what can be a pasteboard villain and singing his highly demanding music in the best traditions of a Verdi baritone.'
