The Theodora is excellent, it has a modern twist to the staging, Peter Sellars is the Director. I am not a great admirer of his, but I could not imagine this piece brought more convincingly to life. As well as Daniels, who is superb, Upshaw is excellent. Their two duets are especially affecting, blissful. The whole approach by Christie is to produce long momnets of suspended time and each long aria is given with repeats. There is not a boring moment in it.
Additionally, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson is at the top of her form and rivets attention as she unrolls each of her arias, such great acting is rare.
We had this on VHS after accidentally catching about half of it on TV, we wore the tape out, it stretched. So, it is good to now have it safely on DVD.
Here is a site about Daniels, but it is not being kept up to date, I have pretty much all the recordings mentioned. I especially recommend the Vivaldi Stabat Mater.
http://www.danielssings.com/recordings.htmlMike