Many thanks for your kind and encouraging words, Stephen; I, too, have been surprised to find my surveys quoted in unlikely places but ours is a small and even stuffy little operaphile world.
Point taken about omitting to review recordings I know I do not like. I suppose I do that for a number of reasons: laziness, because it's a chore re-listening to recordings which I don't enjoy; a reluctance to be acid-tongued about artists who have had important careers and others esteem even if I do not - and who am I to denigrate them?; recognition of the fact that reviewing is a very subjective business; an inclination to leave the assessment of such artists to those who find more to admire in their performances than do I.
Having said all that, I do occasionally include quite negative reviews and do not always necessarily feel proud of having done so! I will try to be more even-handed in any future surveys but I do now seem to be truly running out of works to do.
Finally, you might have seen that I have asked for a review of Virginia Zeani's 1968 recording of Violetta to be inserted into my survey of La traviata - and I am pleased to say that I liked it very much.
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