Enlightening indeed, and a real pleasure to go back to again and again. I would quibble with one small point though in the review of the DG Giulini version - to my knowledge Rosalind Plowright was never a "Karajan protege" as Ralph says. She was favoured by Giulini and Sinopoli. I think he is possibly confusing her with Josephine Barstow, who did record Verdi with Karajan (Ballo).