Carlo Maria Giulini (1914–2005) was without question, along with fellow Italians Arturo Toscanini, Victor de Sabata and Guido Cantelli, one of the greatest conductors of his generation. His opera performances at Covent Garden were landmarks for the Company, notably Verdi's Don Carlos, Falstaff, Il trovatore and La Traviata.

This 1960 performance of Rossini's sparkling Il barbiere di Siviglia features a stellar cast consisting of a youthful Teresa Berganza as Rosina and Luigi Alva as The Count, who had been asked by Giulini immediately after his 1955 debut at La Scala, Milan, to sing the Count in a legendary La Scala production headed by Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi. This was his Covent Garden debut. The baritone Rolando Panerai as Figaro had been a stalwart of La Scala since 1951, while Fernando Corena as Dr Bartolo was making his Covent Garden debut but was already a major international figure. He had sung regularly at the Metropolitan Opera since 1954.

The critic of The Times said of Berganza’s Rosina, ‘She is young, vivacious and Spanish. What more can anyone ask of Rosina?’ Equally excellent was his report on Alva’s Count, which he described as being ‘acted with gusto and resource and without a rough note in his voice’. The result was once again brilliant: ‘…this too was an ideal characterisation in music’. Panerai’s Figaro was notable for ‘a fine voice of ample power and easy delivery, versatile in inflection and infectious in comedy’. Corena was also felt to be in ‘commanding voice’, and Vinco’s singing was ‘sardonic enough for anything’.

This is a very rare recording which has never appeared commercially before.