Jeremy Commons suggests that the opera should have been named after the heroine, Delizia d’Altamura, rather than her father Corrado. It might still better have been called La forza del destino causing Verdi and Piave to think again about a title for their new opera 21 years later. The last acts of both operas take a very similar turn: against his will, the tenor-lover has killed the soprano’s father in a duel which he does his best to avoid, ending up with his seeking forgiveness from her in a convent. There appears to be no musical kinship (to judge, at least, from these “highlights”), but certainly the dramatic affinity is notable.

And Federico Ricci’s score is in no way unworthy. Written in 1841, three years after Il prigione d’Edimburgo, the music has its own individuality – and it confers a sufficient individuality upon the characters too. My own candidate for the title-role, if poor old Corrado is to be displaced, would in fact not be Delizia but the more interesting Roggero d’Agrigento. To him falls the moment, late in the opera, when the emotions are most generously called upon, as he leads the ensemble in a melody of the kind that Verdi was to develop most movingly in the swaying lament of the great concerted finale of the second act of La traviata.

The tenor here is the young, clear-voiced and stylish Dmitry Korchak. Corrado is James Westman, a baritone well supplied with high A flats for his cabaletta and with a well placed voice sometimes recalling Sherrill Milnes. But much interest will centre on the appearance of Dimitra Theodossiou in the Opera Rara schedule. This is the kind of role which might in former years have gone to Nelly Miricioiu, who would have sung with broader, warmer tones, though Theodossiou (best known on records for her Norma) has a comparably strong dramatic instinct. Here the voice is well contrasted with the lighter soprano of Cora Burggraaf who plays Margarita, the “other woman”, and with Ann Taylor as the other admirer, with whom she has an attractive duet. Good work by orchestra and chorus under Roland Böer, who shows a sure feeling for the style. The opera, last heard in 1870, was spotted by the late Patric Schmid, to whom this premiere recording is dedicated.