Like Marina Viotti’s recording devoted to Pauline Viardot (see overleaf), this new album featuring Jodie Devos is a tribute to a famous 19th-century singer. And it’s a fitting tribute, too, for the Belgian coloratura soprano sings the repertoire of another Belgian coloratura soprano, Marie Cabel (1827-85), who created the role of Philine in Ambroise Thomas’s Mignon. There’s even a neat Viardot link, for the French mezzo heard the young Cabel and prophesied a great future for her: ‘You have a charming voice, you will acquire talent, reputation, then wealth; you will have a castle, carriages, you will be one day what my sister [Maria Malibran] was.’

Castles and carriages would be suitable reward for Devos because this disc of ‘Lost Jewels’ – taking its title from Adolphe Adam’s opéra comique Le bijou perdu – is a treasure trove of discoveries, many of them unavailable anywhere else on disc at present and quite splendidly sung. An hour of this repertoire might be a bit too much sugary coloratura for some to take in a single sitting … fortunately, I have a sweet tooth.

Cabel carved out a huge career mostly singing at the Théâtre Lyrique and Opéra-Comique in Paris. In the operas represented on this programme, she created the roles of Toinon in Le bijou perdu, Jaguarita in Halévy’s Jaguarita l’Indienne (where she was criticised for not red-facing!), Manon Lescaut (Auber), Dinorah in Meyerbeer’s opera, originally called Le pardon de Ploërmel, as well as Philine, whose glittering ‘Oui, pour ce soir je suis reine des fées!’ closes the abum. Apart from Philine’s aria and Dinorah’s, this is repertoire that is rarely heard or recorded.

Devos tackles it all with verve and polish. Her soprano is perky, with crystalline high notes and dizzying scales, and is absolutely pitch-perfect. Dinorah’s ‘Ombre légère’ is an ideal track to sample; listen to the way she varies her tone and dynamics when echoing her own florid coloratura, quite outstanding. She tucks into the extended excerpt from Halévy’s Jaguarita l’Indienne – an aria and rousing war song – with relish, joined by the Flemish Radio Choir. Elisabeth’s two arias from Le songe d’une nuit d’été (nothing to do with Shakespeare) are charming, while ‘I am Titania the blonde’ from Mignon (definitely to do with Shakespeare, the actress Philine playing the Bard’s fairy queen) sparkles.

And Devos pings out top notes at will. I’m reminded of the Hampshire burr of John Arlott, that poet of the BBC Test Match Special commentary box, describing a Clive Lloyd six in the 1975 World Cup final as ‘the stroke of a man knocking a thistle top off with a walking stick’. Devos’s stratospheric attacks into the stands make it sound similarly easy.

Her compatriots in the Brussels Philharmonic provide stylish support under Pierre Bleuse, with some fine solos, such as the limpid flute in the Mignon aria. Alpha’s presentation includes informative notes by Alexandre Dratwicki of Palazzetto Bru Zane, which supported this release. They may well want to investigate complete recordings of some of these pearls. Lost jewels indeed.