 The album was recorded using analogue technology in February 1980 in London.The covers of the LP, cassette and CD versions of the album all feature the same photograph, taken by Mike Evans, showing Carreras and von Stade on stage at Covent Garden during the opera's final act.Alan Blyth reviewed the album on LP in "Gramophone" in October 1981, comparing it with recordings of the opera conducted by Riccardo Chailly and Michel Plasson He approved of most of Davis's principal soloists almost unreservedly.