Despite the fame of the title-character’s ‘Ebben? Ne andrò lontana’, Alfredo Catalani’s La Wally remains a rarity on disc – whether in audio or video formats. Indeed, this seems to be one of only two versions currently available on DVD or Blu-ray. It’s a welcome release, and a characteristically engaging production from Vienna’s ever-enterprising Theater an der Wien.

Right from the start, when, ahead of the orchestra’s first entry, we hear a kind of atmospheric, yodelling call to prayer, it’s clear that Barbora Horáková Joly has no truck with representing the Swiss locale in any picturesque way. In Eva-Maria Van Acker’s sets, the first two acts take place on a dark soily slope, a discarded bathtub on one side, a miniature Swiss chalet on the other, which Wally sets ablaze during her famous aria. For Acts 3 and 4, a bare scaffold-like structure stands above black boulders.

There’s boozing and drudgery – women glumly peel potatoes in Act 1 while their menfolk get drunk – and colour only comes in for the high-octane revelry of Act 2. We don’t get to see much of Tabea Rothfuchs’s video projections but they add atmospheric and occasionally puzzling imagery at the back of the stage. Pretty it ain’t, then, but nor really is the plot of the opera, even if Catalani’s attractive score has several beautiful moments.

Arguably one of the opera’s problems is the title-character herself: haughty, proud and jealous, she’s not easy to like. And I took some time to warm to Izabela Matula’s portrayal, too. As the character herself thaws, so does Matula’s performance, with the acting catching up with the impressive, powerful singing. As Hagenbach – the object of her affection, jealous hatred and then love – Leonardo Capalbo sings ardently and smoulders moodily.

The supporting cast are superb, led by Jacques Imbrailo as an unusually complex Gellner, unrequitedly in love with Wally. This Gellner is handsome and sensitive, and one imagines the typical baritone scheming doesn’t come easily to him; but jealousy, amplified by alcohol, soon takes its effect. Imbrailo sings the role beautifully. Alastair Miles is excellent as an especially nasty Stromminger. There’s a moving performance from Ilona Revolskaya as Walter, also fleshed out significantly in Horáková’s vision.

Andrés Orozco-Estrada conducts the Vienna Symphony with plenty of passion and punch, and there’s good work from the Arnold Schoenberg Choir. All in all, then, a powerful, intelligent account of this fine verismo work.