Ackermann’s mono recording of The Land of Smiles is available above EMI, coupled with The Merry Widow. Naxos offer it separately, together with a generous collection of Léhar arias sung by a galaxy of great operetta singers from the past. Mark Obert-Thorn’s transfer is every bit as good as EMI’s, but it cannot disguise the orchestral thinness in the long (too long) overture; but the voices come up well and (praise be!) the dialogue is all separately cued. Schwarzkopf not only sings delightfully in the main work but also contributes in 1939 (alongside the stirring Rupert Glawitsch) to excerpts from Paganini and (in 1940) Das Land des Lächelns, where the voice sounds young and sweet, almost soubrettish. Other highlights are provided by heady tenor contributions from Leonardo Aramesco and Marcel Wittrich, almost trumped by Helge Rosvaenge in Giuditta and the delightful soprano Irene Eisinger in Der Fürst der Berge. But all these singers have something very special about their vocal personalities which conjures up a past era, and Ward Marston’s faithful transfers show just how good were the original masters.