Leopold Mozart thought of!! sogno di Scipione as a mere preparation for the Ascanio commission, but everyone, including his son, seems committed to the task in hand in this azione teatrate. It may be somewhat less than action-packed and hardly theatrical, but this excuse for an hour or so of Metastasian philosophical and metaphysical speculation in the mouths of Scipio and his two temptresses Fortuna and Costanza, certainly drew longer-breathed, more sharply characterized writing from Mozart's pen than Parini's courtly pastoral. Peter Schreier as the dreamer on trial fleshes out Mozart's highly sentient use of vocal register to express his gradual awakening into consciousness, as much as his ardent, if less than agile, rejection of Fortuna. Fortuna puts forward her claim in gleaming, Vitellia-esque arias, robustly trilled and ornamented by Edita Gruberova. Lucia Popp, as her rival, sings with less high glaze but radiantly enough and with apt tenacity. In the celestial and ancestral corridors of power, Publio (Claes H. Ahnsja) puts forward a compelling claim for immortality in his ringing, horn-accompanied aria, while Thomas Moser's incisive and authoritative Emilio brings out the paternal benevolence of Mozart's little two-note phrases. Edith Mathis, though, has the last and the best word. She is granted both the original, concise Licenza ending, and the later, wonderfully expansive aria in the final Homage Cantata for the enthronement of Archbishop Colloredo. -- Gramophone [1/1992]