(...) Opera companies around the world should kidnap conductor Tommaso Placidi. Italian-born and Swiss-based, Placidi makes Gounod's 1865 overly wrought music sound like the greatest opera ever written, achingly beautiful and intensely dramatic. The Spoleto orchestra is made up of young musicians culled from the best conservatories in the United States and the wannabe professionals play their hearts out for Placidi. It is the best-sounding orchestra I have heard in all my Spoleto years. Placidi reaches into Gounod and literally pulls out the heart strings (...) - PAULA CITRON