28 OCTOBER 1960, Page 25

envy; Joseph Rouleau, sonorous of voice and twinkling of eye,

makes splendid strides both as singer and as actor in the role of the genial dens ex machina Count Rodolfo; and the chorus, under Serafin's loving hand, sings with real sen- sitivity. Agostino Lazzari, as the tenor, is a pleasant-voiced specimen of his tribe, well above the general level of Covent Garden importation —though I wish he would not prance on to the village square with quite such a blatantly spurious air of one who a moment ago was clearing his tubes in the wings.