This set, dating from the mid-1950s and originally (and for many years) on RCA, looks better on paper than it actually is, and this transfer has a fatal flaw that leaves it in the cold anyway. That flaw is the pitch: the GOP engineers, if there are any, have transferred the recording just about a half-tone sharp. That makes the already fast tempos seem almost comical, and it also has the disadvantage of making the already chirpy Roberta Peters sound like Alvin the Chipmunk and the great Björling, with his bright voice, sound brittle. Even so, the performance always was too matter-of-fact, let’s-get-it-over-with, with little characterization. Björling entirely misses the point of the charming Duke, turning in a performance that is positively angry: his cries of “T’amo” as he surprises Gilda in Act 1 are actually menacing. Robert Merrill is plush of voice but devoid of real temperament and Peters just delivers one very high note after another. The rest of the cast is idiomatic and Perlea’s leadership is precise but rushed beyond the dramatic. Forget it.
