Virginia Zeani was the first international Romanian lyric stage star of the LP age, a name impossible to miss on the overseas pages of Opera who sang nearly 650 Violettas -- very well and subtly too, if the Gavazzeni-accompanied 'Addio del passato' here is anything to go by.

. . . a generous selection of arias from Virginia Zeani, one of the outstanding singing actresses of the twentieth century . . . [Puccini]: it is here that Zeani demonstrates the gift that was even greater than the beauty and technical security of her singing: her technical prowess gave her a greater range of vocal possibilities when singing verismo. So often, studio performances are musically accurate, sonically sound but dramatically flat. Zeani manages to pitch her performances beyond the microphone -- but not in a way that feels calculated or intellectualized. Her lean voice is even up and down the scale and has a beautiful femininity to it . . . These are classic performances, and Decca is to be applauded for restoring them to the public.

Voix longue, timbre rond et charnu, chant sur le souffle, art de la coloration, elle mettait de surcroît dans ses interprétations un feu qui vous remuait l'âme . . . sa Violetta égalait les plus grandes. La deuxième moitié du disque revient à son récital Puccini, pas moins stylé que vibrant: un modèle.