With these two discs Opera Rara moves away from its predominantly Italian repertoire into territory occupied by the Palazzetto Bru Zane and its excellent CD-cum-book series of lesser-known 19th-century French operas. Julie Dorus-Gras (1805‑96) and Gilbert Duprez (1806‑96) starred in the premieres of two operas featured here, Guido et Ginévra and Benvenuto Cellini, and one that isn’t, Donizetti’s Les martyrs. Dorus-Gras appeared in the premieres of Robert le diable and La Juive; Duprez in Rosmonda d’Inghilterra, Lucia di Lammermoor, Jérusalem and many others. Joyce El‑Khoury and Michael Spyres perform arias associated with their respective forebears and – a nice touch – each sings in a duet on the other’s recording.

The booklets include a background article on the original singers, an introduction to each item, and full texts and translations. Rosie Ward quotes Berlioz’s praise of Duprez’s ‘chest voice … with … a beauty of sound for which nothing had prepared us’. She doesn’t quote Rossini’s comment that Duprez’s top C, the famous ut de poitrine, sounded like the squawk of a capon having its throat cut. Nothing of the sort can be levelled at Michael Spyres, who delivers Cs, Ds and, in Le lac des fées, an astonishing top E flat with overwhelming power and confidence. He begins with the French version of Otello’s ‘Ah! sì, per voi già sento’: if this is indeed Othello’s first utterance, it makes for a more commanding entrance than the recitative that precedes it in the original. Equally martial, with similar dotted rhythms, is the aria from Rosmonda.

With Halévy’s Guido et Ginévra we are on really unfamiliar ground. Like Romeo, Guido mourns at his beloved’s tomb (and, like Juliet, Ginévra is not really dead). His air begins with a mournful trumpet solo in B flat minor and ends surprisingly in B major. The duet from the following act is powerfully dramatic. Spyres is magnificent throughout the disc, lacking only the honeyed tone of Nicolai Gedda where Benvenuto Cellini yearns for the life of a shepherd leading his herd (sic!) to pasture. It’s curious that Lucie de Lammermoor doesn’t get a look-in, as Duprez certainly sang his part in French as well as Italian.

Like Dorus-Gras, Joyce El‑Khoury takes the part of both Isabelle and Alice in Robert le diable. She is particularly suited to the gentle Alice, whose ‘Va, dit-elle’ anticipates Micaëla’s ‘Et tu lui diras’ in Carmen by more than 40 years. Mathilde’s air from Guillaume Tell is just as simple and unaffected. El‑Khoury catches Agathe’s tenderness in ‘Ma prière’ (‘Leise, leise’) from Le Freyschütz and phrases ‘I miei sospiri’ in Lucia to perfection (not quite matched by Spyres). Sometimes she sacrifices her consonants to beauty of tone: not too serious a drawback. Carlo Rizzi and the Hallé provide lively accompaniments, with some fine solos. Both discs are a must for lovers of the repertoire.