One of Dame Joan Sutherland's own favourite recordings, long unavailable on its own, reissued with additional material recorded at the Geneva sessions, with rarely seen photographs and a new booklet introduction. In her introduction to this reissue of Sutherland's 1969 recording of Romantic French Arias, Fiona Janes notes that the album was made just shy of the soprano's 43rd birthday, roughly halfway through her career. A distinguished mezzo-soprano herself, Janes is now Artistic Director of the Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Foundation. The Foundation's mission is to foster the next generation of operatic artists through competitions and scholarships; the technical finesse and dedication of Sutherland to her art remain models for any aspiring singer, and this album stands testament to her ambition to conquer the coloratura repertoire in an area – French grand opera and opéra comique – which had not previously been considered her home territory.