People talk dismissively about 'those crackly old records'. Here it is the stage that crackles – with energy. The charge runs through orchestra and chorus. And never mind about the recording being old: it is uncommonly vivid. The feeling of the house, keyed up for its matinee doublebill (Salome to follow) is itself part of the show: another layer to the play-within-the-play. At the centre are two towering individual performances – Martinelli's Canio and Lawrence Tibbett's Tonio.
Tibbett combines the gusto of old-time theatre with some rare refinements of the vocal art, and he is in magnificent voice. Martinelli sings as in a slowly consuming fire, his arioso a nobly sustained utterance in which Leoncavallo's music realises most completely its capacity for tragic intensity. Nor should Queena Mario's Nedda pass as over-shadowed: she too makes the part live dramatically, and her light, pure voice is skilfully used, in a way worthy of her teacher, the great Marcella Sembrich.

People talk dismissively about "those crackly old records". Here it is the stage that crackles - with energy. Never mind about the recording being old: it is uncommonly vivid. At the centre are two towering individual performances - Martinelli's Canio and Lawrence Tibbett's Tonio.