The historical Caterina Cornaro was the means by which Venice came to rule the island of Cyprus. She was married off by her wealthy father to James II, the illegitimate scion of the Lusignan dynasty. After her husband died the next year, almost certainly poisoned, she reigned as a puppet of the Venetians until she was forced to abdicate in 1489. She lived until 1510, presiding over what Jeremy Commons, in his characteristically informative booklet-note, calls ‘a small but brilliant and cultured court’.

She was no beauty, to judge from a contemporary portrait by Gentile Bellini (the Titian reproduced on the CD box was painted long after her death). But the opera plot, modelled on Halévy’s La reine de Chypre, gives her a lover, Gerardo, whom she is made to renounce when on the point of marrying him. When he turns up in Nicosia, his life is saved by the king, Lusignano. Gerardo, now in holy orders, swears loyalty to his fellow Frenchman but is unable to save him from being poisoned. In fact, Lusignano meets his death fighting the Venetians; as does Gerardo, in the second version of the finale included here in an appendix.

Caterina Cornaro was the last opera by Donizetti to be staged in the composer’s lifetime. He was too ill to attend the premiere in Naples, where it was a failure. He proposed changes for a production in Parma two years later, which was a success, but it’s not clear if they were incorporated. Certainly the construction is lopsided, with its substantial prologue and brief last act. But the opera contains some top-quality music and Opera Rara makes an excellent case for it. Carmen Giannattasio shows once again how admirably suited she is to the bel canto repertoire. Her opening Romanza encapsulates her virtues: a good legato line with no Sutherland droopiness, followed by an equally expressive cabaletta. Troy Cook finds real nobility, or perhaps I should say royalty, in the part of Lusignano. One of the best numbers is the king’s duet with Gerardo. I have heard Colin Lee described as ‘the poor man’s Flórez’: as anyone who heard both tenors in La donna del lago at Covent Garden will attest, he is very much more than that. Vuyani Mlinde and Graeme Broadbent provide excellent support, and David Parry is reliable as ever. Let’s hope that this new association with the BBC will make up for the loss of sponsorship by the Peter Moores Foundation.