Sony Classical is pleased to offer lovers of great singing another ten complete opera sets from the RCA Victor/BMG, CBS/Sony and Eurodisc catalogues, with 3 titles (Rameau: Les Indes galantes, Ginastera: Bomarzo; Monteverdi: Ritorno d’Ulisse) remastered from the original tapes to sound better than ever. This latest release is especially diverse, embracing four centuries and rarities from two continents along with central works of the Italian and German repertoires. Many of these recordings are appearing on CD for the first time.

In 1998, Sir Charles Mackerras, one of the last century’s most versatile and enterprising opera conductors, made a new recording of Lucia di Lammermoor, following Donizetti’s original autograph score and offering a reading in keeping with performance practice in the composer’s time. Acclaim for the set included the review of MusicWeb International: “In the eponymous role the Hungarian soprano Andrea Rost is distinctly in the leggiero tradition of light flexible voices … Bruce Ford is his usual dependable self, singing ardently and expressively … The recording quality in this version is outstanding and well balanced. Adherents of period bands will find much to enjoy under Sir Charles Mackerras’s ever idiomatic and sympathetic baton.” And Classic CD, hailing it as “Disc of the Month”, gave it 5 stars and declared it the “preferred version” of Lucia.