Once more Opera Rara chooses its ground judiciously, works on it with skill and devotion, and up springs another prize sample of a species once thought lost for ever. Until its re-emergence in concert performance at the London Coliseum in 2006, Giovanni Pacini’s opera of Alexander the Great in India had not been seen or heard of since its last Italian production in 1834, when apparently the silence of its audience had been deafening until the hissing started. The 1830s were the age of Bellini and Donizetti, and Pacini had become a composer of the past.

Here his subject-matter was against him: the big classical landscapes with great historic names caught up in a tiring complexity of contrived events gave way to more intimate stories of romance. The decorative style of vocal writing and the punctilious observance of recognised forms were other features of the newly old-fashioned – and nothing is more old-fashioned than that.

What survives for us today is notable partly for its freshness. Melody is on tap, slow or fast but never in danger of drying up. Then, having been conditioned to expect an orchestral vacuity, we are surprised to find how variously flavoured a score this is. And many more features could be chosen for praise, both general and particular. Ultimately, the more personal, and probably decisive, questions – how moving is it? and how memorable? – must be left to the individual and to time. For myself, I don’t think I could raise more than a cautious point-offering of 3 or 4 out of 10.

Where the performance is concerned it is a different matter. Laura Claycomb is a fresh-voiced singer totally unfazed by the technical demands of her virtuoso role. Hear her in the final scene and the noble declaration “Io fui consorto a Poro” for expressiveness in recitative. As Poro, the Indian King, Jennifer Larmore is the bringer of fire, a great infuser of passion into everything she sings. Bruce Ford has the role of Alexander, great in his affections and clemency as in military might. It was a part written with a very special voice in mind, that of Antonio Nozzari, a tenor famous for his skill in coloratura and still more so for the strong baritonal quality of his low notes. The hero of many seasons with Opera Rara, Ford has no longer quite the close-knit texture of earlier years, but all the notes are there, including Nozzari’s low ones. Orchestra and chorus under David Parry give of their expertly practised best. Equally expert are the booklet-notes by Jeremy Commons. Recorded sound helps to give the performance stage-life and copes well with the periodic appearances of the band, welcome for its provision of zest and colour when most wanted.