When I saw this broadcast live in 1981, still in my teens but studying performing arts in earnest, I remember saying that it represented everything great that theatre is. After decades of searching for it, first on VHS, then DVD, to experience it again here was an indescribably precious gift. When I consider all the media I have consumed since then, it is a bit surprising that my reverence for it had not taken on a life of its own; but I appreciated it all the more filtered through the intervening years, and was newly moved and awed. This is a superb production with a uniquely talented director and an expertly chosen cast that glowed with a specific kind of expertise that will never be seen again, in a period piece of a time with which no future cast will ever have any persona experience. I am so thankful that we have this recording.