The Rossini Bicentennial Birthday Gala is a live album of operatic and sacred music by Gioachino Rossini, performed by Rockwell Blake, Craig Estep, Maria Fortuna, Thomas Hampson, George Hogan, Marilyn Horne, Kathleen Kuhlmann, Mimi Lerner, Chris Merritt, Jan Opalach, Samuel Ramey, Henry Runey, Frederica von Stade, Deborah Voigt, the Concert Chorale of New York and the Orchestra of St. Luke's under the direction of Sir Roger Norrington.

[2] The following year, EMI issued most of the contents of their video album (arranged in a different running order) on CD: the omissions were the Overture to La gazza ladra, the quartet "Cielo il mio labbro inspira" from Bianca e Falliero, the trio "Pappataci!

The singer whose contribution he enjoyed most was Marilyn Horne, who performed not only "Mura felici" from La donna del lago but also a "Di tanti palpiti" that was to have been sung by an indisposed June Anderson.

The runners-up for the palm of the evening were Thomas Hampson with his "delectable" if somewhat over-familiar "Largo al factotum" from Il barbiere di Siviglia, Deborah Voigt in the "Inflammatus" from the Stabat mater and Kathleen Kuhlmann in the "Agnus Dei" from the Petite messe solennelle.

Chris Merritt sang "Asile hérédetaire" from Guillaume Tell with "insensitivity to phrase and colour, merely treating the music as a build-up for a series of high notes that sounded like blood squeezed from a stone."

The concert's opening number, the overture to La gazza ladra, was disappointing too, omitting its customary cymbals in order to achieve a "bloodless correctitude in the eyes of modern scholarship".

Marilyn Horne, still blessed with a royal, marvellously unwearied voice despite her advancing years, sang one of Malcom's arias from La donna del lago with rock-solid control and the precision of a pianist.

Deborah Voigt was not quite so impressive in her "Inflammatus", singing with "some grandeur if little variety", but things looked up when Frederica von Stade presented an aria from La Cenerentola "with generous spirit and a winning smile".

He also mentioned Thomas Hampson's "over the top" aria from Il barbiere di Siviglia and the "Agnus Dei" from the Petite messe solennelle, the latter of particular interest because it was performed with Rossini's "reluctantly and tardily supplied orchestration".