Robin Mitchell-Boyask <[log in to unmask]> says of Muti: >I've never found his machine-gun tempi and smothering of singers >particularly satisfying. I assume this does not refer to his opera recordings. I have seen quite a few documentaries on Italian TV, usually very late at night, of Muti's rehearsals at La Scala. Nothing I have seen supports this view nor, indeed, do any of his opera performances that I have attended. The "smothering of singers" can only be judged if one is there otherwise, I believe, one has to look to the engineers and their recording or broadcast transmission balance. The only machine-gun tempi I recall in Italian opera came from Toscanini, surely (on disc, of course)? Strict rhythmic discipline in Italian opera as manifest by Gui, Giulini (pre-1980), Muti & Chailly (and, yes, Abbado) is, I suggest, something else? John G. Deacon Home page: www.ctv.es/USERS/j.deacon