A word first about presentation. Don César de Bazan was staged in 2016 by Les Frivolités Parisiennes. This is a studio recording from last year which dispenses with all the spoken dialogue apart from the mélodrame (speech over music) – and some of that is cut too. The synopsis in the booklet manages to be extensive without being comprehensive; the printed libretto, which is available online but only in French, includes the dialogue and the text of musical numbers that have been omitted. Here is an unfamiliar opera that really needs the full Palazzetto Bru Zane treatment, with background articles, contemporary accounts and a translation of the libretto. On the other hand, this set is half the price of the Bru Zane productions; credit is due to Naxos for its enterprise.

Don César was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in 1872. Some of the cast were to appear in Carmen three years later: Jacques Bouhy (Don César/Escamillo), Célestine Galli-Marié (Lazarille/Carmen) and Paul Lhérie (King Charles II/Don José). The score and parts were lost when the theatre burnt down in 1887, and Massenet reorchestrated the opera from the vocal score for a production in Geneva the following year. It must have surprised anyone in the audience who had seen the operas that Massenet had composed in the interim: they might have recognised an anticipation of Manon (1884), but in its mixture of comedy and seriousness, not to mention its Spanish colouring, Don César is more like Carmen than anything else. Bizet must have seen it, back in 1872.

The story, roughly the same as Vincent Wallace’s Maritana (London, 1845), is loosely based on Victor Hugo’s play Ruy Blas. The villain of the piece is Don José, whose designs on the queen will have a chance of success only if her husband proves unfaithful. The king is obsessed with Maritana, who as a street-singer is too low-born to be his mistress. Don José persuades Don César to marry Maritana immediately before his execution for duelling, thereby raising her to an appropriate rank. But although the marriage takes place, the execution is frustrated by the boy Lazarille, on whose behalf Don César had fought the duel. Naturally, bride and groom fall in love. After further complications – yes, really! – Don César saves the king’s honour by killing Don José offstage: his reward is to be appointed governor of Granada, and of course he keeps the girl.

It’s not much of a drama without the dialogue. There’s a side to Don César – humorous, even witty – that is only apparent when he is speaking rather than singing. But the music is certainly appealing. The first act alone includes a ballade aragonaise for Maritana, a beautiful prayer for the chorus, ‘À l’aube de cette journée’, an ardent mélodie for the king and a swaggering air for Don César. There’s a lovely berceuse that Lazarille sings to the sleeping, imprisoned César and some effective ensembles, including a patter duet for Don César and Don José. Two of the entr’actes recall music previously heard, such as the gavotte in the Act 1 finale.

It’s all very well done by Les Frivolités Parisiennes. The best-known singer is Laurent Naouri, who brings a wealth of experience to the title-role. Don José doesn’t get a solo number but Christian Helmer more than holds his own in the duet with Don César. As King Charles II, Thomas Bettinger sings his Act 3 cavatine so winningly that it’s a shame he’s deprived of his further avowal of love in Act 4. The women are even better. Elsa Dreisig expresses Maritana’s loneliness and yearning in a beautifully phrased Romance, ‘Je sais qu’il est une âme’; the boy Lazarille is sung by Marion Lebègue, whose rich mezzo, after a tender lullaby and a supplicatory Romance, is a perfect match for Dreisig’s soprano in the duo nocturne. Massenet’s scoring gives special opportunities to the cor anglais, clarinet and horn. Mathieu Romano is the conductor of this lively performance, which at bargain price is certainly worth investigation and, indeed, investment.