ENO 30 years ago. For the company’s first Pelléas, a controversial stage production (Harry Kupfer) decidedly not set in some sub-Arthurian fairyland – what relief! – and an English translation by Hugh Macdonald that stirred up controversy from the off when Eilene Hannan’s Mélisande called out ‘Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me!’ Slightly rearranged note values but real, non-translation-ese English: it would become something of a priority during Mark Elder’s music-directorship.

Macdonald’s English worked in a strong company performance whose original BBC radio sound and balance (helped by Chandos’s new transfer) has stood the test of time. John Tomlinson is a sad, wise Arkel, the epitome of an opera where everyone always knows (or intuits) more than they can bring themselves to say. Neil Howlett is good at the tricky ambivalence that dogs Golaud’s every step – is he a sadist, paranoid or just a normal frail human being? Try the worry that he injects into his laugh when (Act 3) he catches Pelléas effectively bathing in Mélisande’s hair. They’re acting like children, or…?

The (innocent?) lovers are well taken. Hannan doesn’t attempt the little-girl Gretel-ness that Frederica von Stade did for Karajan in a famous EMI set. Instead, she modifies her natural ardour into a suitably passionate neutrality – Mélisande, remember, was one of Bluebeard’s wives. Robert Dean, who in the years since 1981 has become conductor and coach, traces Pelléas’s emotional growth well, flinging himself into the aborted love/murder scene in the park (Act 4) with abandon.

Comparisons with some almost contemporary recordings – the 1978 Karajan mentioned above and the 1969 Boulez (leading London’s other opera orchestra) – show how clear Elder is in this score, how he has worked to bring out every strand in the harmony, every rhythmic step. And the Coliseum’s orchestra of the time were in good shape, the wind soloists worthy of comparison with the ‘royal family’ sections of the capital’s symphony orchestras. Elder’s sound feels more German (OK, Wagnerian) than either Karajan or Boulez but his internal and pit/stage balances are well-enough calculated for this not to threaten his singers’ being clearly heard. Definitely recommended for Anglophone listeners because it’s good, for once, to be able to absorb every word (and nuance) of this complex opera as they slip by.