Hi Tassie

Thanks for re-posting.

As said elsewhere, I agree that the Gounod has wonderful performances and great sound with clever miking. The casting is also great, despite Netrebko pulling out.

Is the Bellini a typical Met production, with performers lost on a huge stage, sounding remote and looking overwhelmed by bombastic scenery (the usual trick, which audiences seem to love, is to introduce horses onto the stage!)?

Is the Massenet production-driven (Hollywood director) or is everything sympathtic to the music?

The Gounod is DTS HD Master and is stated as such in the DG catalogue. DG and Decca catalogues give most of their other issues as DTS HD i.e. only 16 bit and therefore standard DVD sound quality. But perhaps this was sloppy listing. Please could you confirm either way the sound codecs of some of your discs? Being a cheapskate I don't want to pay Blu prices for DVD sound!

Asa Post