A sweet book but not a highlight of the "opera discography" genre. Blyth was the editor of the three-volume "Opera on Record" collection in the 1980s, which really is the height of achievement for all commercial recordings up to that time. This came fairly early in the CD era, and is a much tinier, more focused collection. It is limited, naturally, by what had been released on CD at that point (really only ten years into the medium's lifespan) and by a desire to be a kind of pocket reference guide, just highlighting the most necessary recordings of each of the most recognisable operas - with a few surprises thrown in.

You'll do much better with the Penguin or Gramophone guides, or indeed these days simply using that - whaddaycall it? - world wide web. ( )