. . "From the vantage point of today, it is hard to figure out exactly why the recording companies were so determined to cast him in Verdi and Puccini and Wagner and other composers that weren't really right for his lightish baritone voice (to be fair, his recording of Verdi's Rigoletto is actually quite terrific), but there we are; and the leading record producers felt that in order to record Meiste" . . . .