The performance dates back to 1983, having been recorded at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York in June, 1983. Accordingly, we are not talking about a real recent piece of video at all, and at times it really does show. The transfer is presented in Full Frame format and is not 16x9 enhanced. The area where this transfer most shows its age is in the slightly flat image. There is an amazing lack of depth to the image with the result that there is little in the way of detail in the transfer.
Sharpness is at best only pretty good and often is fairly average.
Clarity is acceptable enough although there is plenty of consistent albeit minor grain throughout the transfer. Shadow detail is similarly quite average and is not up to what we would expect in similar recordings today. There would appear to be some minor noise issues in the sky background, especially during the first Act. The transfer is consistently slightly undersaturated throughout with the result that this is not as vibrant as we would have expected. Since this is supposed to capture the full Spanish colour, this is a bit underwhelming overall.