At a time when Donizetti was represented on the world’s stages by little more than Lucia di Lammermoor, and the recording industry was only beginning to capitalise on public hunger for the sublime art of bel canto, this complete recording of the composer’s first great international success was welcomed as a landmark in the history of the opera. It had been Maria Callas who gave the piece a triumphant revival at La Scala in 1957, but in a truncated edition which did not do full justice to the full originality of Donizetti’s voice as he emerged from the imposing example of Bellini. This was the first recording anywhere near complete, doing full justice to the noble scale and scope of the drama and the force and richness of Donizetti’s imagination.