Perhaps it's a shade misleading to refer to this classic EMI recording as a 'Glyndebourne' set. It has all the ingredients of a Glyndebourne production: notably the cast, the orchestra and chorus, and that doyen of Rossini conductors, Vittorio Gui. But as far as can be ascertained, there was no actual stage production of Il barbiere in 1962. Nor was the recording, for all its dryness and sharpedged immediacy, actually made at Glyndebourne.
It's a well-honed, conservatively staged stereophonic studio recording made by EMI in its Abbey Road Studio No 1. Gui's performance is so astutely paced that, while the music bubbles and boils, every word is crystal-clear. This is a wonderfully declaimed reading of the score, but also a beautifully timed one. Gui's steady tempos allow the music to show its underlying toughness, and he secures characterful playing from the RPO, the wind players in particular. Where Victoria de los Angeles is so memorable is in the beauty of her singing and the originality of the reading. There has never been a Rosina who manages to be both as guileful and as charming as she. Team her up with the incomparable Sesto Bruscantini and, in something like the nodal Act 1 duet, 'Dunque io son', you have musical and dramatic perfection. Ian Wallace is a fine character actor, given plenty of space by Gui, allowing his portrait of Dr Bartolo to emerge as a classic compromise between the letter and the spirit of the part.