"Recording of the month: Big-budget studio recordings of standard repertoire operas for which there are multiple alternative offerings are now a rarity, the preserve of megawatt star casts. Warner Classics has assembled just such a line-up for its new Turandot, headed by Sondra Radvanovsky, Jonas Kaufmann and Ermonela Jaho. There are even som luxurious casting in the minor roles - Michael Spyres as the Emperor of China, no less - and to have Antonio Pappano at the helm, conducting the Santa Cecilia orchestra, rounded off a sumptuous package ... It is the attention Pappano pays to crafting the contrasts between passages of intense sensuality and of mechanistic brutality, casting new light on a familiar score in the process, which really makes this a major recording event".