British mezzo-soprano, Dame Janet Baker, chose to retire from the operatic stage singing the title role in Sir Peter Hall's acclaimed production of Christoph Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. This 1982 recording from Glyndebourne, where Dame Janet appropriately began her professional career, proved a suitable crowning glory to the career of one of the great singing actresses of our age.

Dame Janet's realization of Orfeo, the grieving musician from Greek mythology who follows his beloved wife Euridice to the depths of Hades in an attempt to bring her back from dead, is totally convincing.