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THIS old friend from Glyndebourne and conductor Vittorio Gui is still my favourite after 53 years.

Maria Callas (Norma), Mirto Picchi (Pollione), Giacomo Vaghi (Oreveso), Ebe Stignani (Adalgisa), Joan Sutherland (Clotilde). Covent Garden/ Vittorio Gui-Myto 308 [2CD] 156 minutes

The other singers are less attuned to Bellini's demands, though bass Modesti (listed as a tenor on the package) is an articulate Giorgio and almost rises to eloquence in his aria. Filacuridi also knows how to project the words, and if he's never really graceful, he's at least ardent and ringing. He doesn't attempt the very high notes of Act 3.

This was an exciting, if unsubtle, performance, but you have to tolerate terrible sound and poor orchestral playing to hear it. [Franco Corelli], near the start of his career, is a loud, forthright Radames. He belts out the final B-flat of 'Celeste Aida' but lets go of it quickly, and he brings little imagination to the rest of his singing. The quality of the voice is unmistakable, but he would become a more interesting Radames with time.

A recording of Italian composer Gasparo Spontini's opera performed by soloists with the Teatro Comunale di Firenze Orchestra and Chorus under Vittorio Gui (Myto, 2CD), is reviewed.

This 1960 Falstaff is perfectly enjoyable, though nothing about it seems to merit extravagant praise. Gui is a good conductor, alert and responsive to the fleet-footed parlando passages and busy ensembles. The two best singers, [Geraint Evans] and Ligabue, recorded their roles in the studio at about the same time (Solti conducting), and they're just as impressive here. Evans sounds slightly more robust and resonant, but there's really very little difference.

The cast, while not the best ever to have recorded this work, is still quite strong. [Denise Duval]'s lyric soprano is pure and appealing, and she's a gifted vocal actress who clearly has the measure of her role. She invests the words with appropriate and effective tonal colors; for example, she really sounds like a frightened girl in her encounters with Golaud.

The audience at La Scala on May 15, 1975 broke into pandemonium every time Home finished an aria. And rightly so. She is in spectacular form. So is [Luigi Alva], as sweet a tenor as ever tread a stage and a master of bel canto style. Montarsolo is not. His coloratura resembles a loud gargle, but he is a comic [Mustafa].

Yet Simionato and [Rolando Panerai] would grace any Aida cast. Both are effective vocal actors. The mezzo's smooth, rich voice and her idiomatic phrasing contribute to a fine portrait of the Egyptian princess; and Panerai's ample, attractive baritone and potent vocal acting make his Act 3 duet with his daughter a high point of the performance.

Taped live at the Florence festival in 1951, this version of Macbeth features the legendary singer-actress Astrid Varnay in one of her few Verdi roles and also allows us to hear the great Vittorio Gui conduct an opera he never recorded in the studio. Varnay brings to Lady Macbeth a combination of intelligence and insight, producing a frightening, complex study of psychological disintegration. Gui, taking the score extremely slowly, generates an atmosphere of unspeakable malignancy. The playing and choral singing are electric, but of the rest of the cast only Gino Penno's noble, traumatised Macduff matches Varnay's intensity. Ivan Petroff is the thuggish Macbeth, while Italo Tajo's Banquo is workmanlike, no more. Well worth hearing, though the sound is patchy, even by the standards of the period.