Between 1998 and 2010 Chandos issued, under its ‘Opera in English’ banner, a series of operatic recital discs featuring a wealth of talent from Bruce Ford (Vol 1, 4/98) to Gerald Finley (Vol 22, 4/10). A few singers, such as Yvonne Kenny, Diana Montague and Thomas Allen, even recorded a second volume. But the Peter Moores Foundation, which supported the series, wound down in 2014, and Chandos hasn’t issued a disc of operatic arias since. Until now. Only this time, it’s in Italian.

Ironically, soprano Linda Richardson would have been the perfect candidate for the Opera in English recital series back then, for between 1997 and 2005 she was a company principal at English National Opera (she did record the role of Oscar in Chandos’s 2003 Masked Ball – 11/04). After that stint at the Coliseum, Richardson went on to build a reliable career, mostly with the UK’s touring companies. In recent years, she sang title-roles in Madama Butterfly and La traviata with Welsh National Opera and there was an Anna Bolena for Longborough Festival Opera.

Of the 10 roles represented here, Richardson has sung most of them on stage, so she brings plenty of experience to this album, recorded with John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London. Perhaps she should have opened with one of those familiar roles, because her very first note here, Leonora’s long F in ‘Pace, pace, mio Dio!’ from La forza del destino, hints at a voice under strain, tackling spinto repertoire that is a size too big for her essentially lyric soprano. This is the case in Amelia’s ‘Morrò, ma prima in grazia’ (Un ballo in maschera) too, where one senses phrases sometimes ending a fraction short, or high notes pinched.

The Mad Scene from Anna Bolena is tackled well, or the parts we are presented with, for the treacherous cabaletta ‘Coppia iniqua’ is excluded (presumably because it requires a choral contribution). From Rigoletto, Richardson sings ‘Caro nome’ attractively, if not as girlishly as she would have done in her ENO days in Jonathan Miller’s production. She is also at home as those Parisian consumptives, Violetta and Mimì. She throws herself into ‘Sempre libera’ with relish and delivers a touching ‘Addio del passato’, while Mimì’s farewell to Rodolfo is sensitively sung. In general, her Puccini comes off better, including a moving Suor Angelica (a role she sang at the RNCM in 2018) that ends with a fabulously floated A.

The final scene from Madama Butterfly is remarkably effective, partly down to Richardson’s stage experience but also to the outstanding playing of the Sinfonia of London under John Wilson, who really lands the orchestral punches in a score he conducted for Glyndebourne Touring Opera. Interestingly, a tenor (Jung Soo Yun) is hired for Pinkerton’s three offstage cries of ‘Butterfly!’ but not for Alfredo’s contributions to ‘Sempre libera’.

In her booklet introduction, Richardson explains how she wanted to show ‘the huge variety of heroines that can be found in the greatest Italian operas’. She certainly pulled out all the plums, and anyone who has enjoyed her performances should be encouraged to investigate this album.