"...that suffers from being poorly recorded: the sound isn't good for 1953, even though it's live; some bars of the music are missing from the original tapes, in addition to the standard cuts; the voices are rather distant and occasionally drowned by the orchestra (the advantage being that you're alerted to a few hidden gems in the score that you may never have heard on other well-recorded performances with an ideal soloist-chorus-orchestra balance). Despite the title on the cover, this is the Italian (DON CARLO) not French (DON CARLOS) version. None of the singers entirely disappoints: my favourites are Rossi-Lemeni (Filippo) and Barbieri (Eboli); though never a favourite of mine, because of his lightweight timbre, Picchi (Carlo) surprisingly acquits himself well; irritatingly, the underrated Mascherini (one of my favourite baritones) forgoes Posa's trills; the little-known Pedrini is a touching Elisabetta. Though I'm an avid collector of historical recordings (notably performances by obscure singers), I recommend this one with caution on account of its technical defects. In order to enjoy it to the full, use your imagination: pretend that it's 1953, and that you're hearing it live on transistor. If you already have sonically superior sets of the opera, why try one that's neither stereo nor digital? This super-bargain recording is certainly worth acquiring by anyone striving to build a complete DON CARLO library."