The vaults of Buenos Aires's Teatro Colón are opening and giving us insight into the treasures there. This new CD-ROM is a fair sampling of the Italian offerings; there are as many more available, so the selection was particularly difficult here. And there are comparable performances available in German and French as well. In time, if all goes well, we will be able to explore the rest, but for now we have the following. All are in stereo except Puritani, Gioconda, Manon Lescaut, Otello and Simon Boccanegra, though the examples here are all monaural. (NOTE: If you want to argue that Don Carlo is French, feel free to do it, but I won't take it off the disc. <G>)

It turns out to be as hard to select half an hour of demonstrations here as it was to pick the titles for the disc. I'm sorry if I've missed your first choices, but here are some soprano/tenor duets to whet your appetite.

Puritani "Vieni fra questa braccia" Leyla Gencer and Gianni Raimondi
Lucia "Verrano a te sull'aure" Beverly Sills and Alfredo Kraus
Gioconda "Laura, Laura, dov'e sei?" Elena Suliotis and Richard Tucker
Manon Lescaut Act II finale Montserrat Caballé and Richard Tucker
Tosca "Amaro sol per te m'era morire" Régine Crespin and Gianni Raimondi
Barbiere "Ah qual colpo" Teresa Berganza, Renzo Cassellato and Sesto Bruscantini*
Aida "O terra addio" Martina Arroya and Carlo Bergonzi
Trovatore "Quale d'armi fragor" Leontyne Price and Carlo Bergonzi

* Okay, I'm cheating: it's a trio and she's a mezzo. If that bothers you, don't listen - but you'll be missing some fine singing.