The music for Egyptian Nights is not well known... Quite a bit of it is melodrama—words spoken (in Russian) over music. One such, the finale...

The music for Egyptian Nights is not well known... Quite a bit of it is melodrama—words spoken (in Russian) over music. One such, the finale of Act I, is quite moving. It is followed by the entracte—close to five minutes of the best music.... You are unlikely to find a more beautiful recording of Eugene Onegin than this one. The German orchestra is better than any other that recorded it, and the Russian conductor understands the music. The sound is gorgeous. There are 76 minutes here, and as far as I can determine, that is every note of the music—for the first time... Boris Godounov is the oddest music here, but very attractive... Both this music and the Eugene Onegin were written for stage plays at the time but never used... I had never heard most of this music before, and I found it really beautiful. It’s a very unusual 29 minutes, and it has Prokofieff’s special genius and originality. As for Hamlet... I would put this ahead of any other account. Again, the orchestra is part of the reason; but Jurowski is excellent—as is the sound. There are ten numbers lasting about 28 minutes— no narrator. There are four songs for Ophelia (mezzo-soprano) and a delightful song for the gravediggers. It may be three discs, but what you get here is certainly worth it. -- American Record Guide