Il Segreto di Susanna (1981)

"Much the best cigarette advertisement in the business, the little opera appears as yet without a Government Health Warning attached. As a miniature comic masterpiece it gives Gianni Schicchi a run for its supremacy. The very spirit of Falstaff lives in its energy, its magical orchestration, its alternating knockabout and fragrant tenderness. The orchestral playing here is first rate, Pritchard neither hurrying nor coarsening, if anything perhaps relaxing a shade too luxuriously in the delicious trickles of harp and woodwind. Bruson, a fine manly male in his vocal characterization, sings scrupulously, darkening his tone to give point to the glancing Pagliacci and Otello references. Scotto inflicts a twinge or two as anything resembling a high note approaches, but is otherwise warm-voiced and full of resource in her expressivenes." (J.B.S., Gramophone 1988)