The cover stretches a point in claiming this was ‘unlocked from the archives of RAI’, as it’s been available in America for years. Not that it’s ideal for a Scot, let alone a Scott, to review because celebrated film director Werner Herzog’s Scotland features neither kilt nor Celt and transforms Loch Katrine’s lushly beautiful shores into yawning black chasms whose cave-lurking inhabitants wear somewhat Middle-Eastern pastel robes and peculiar things on their heads. Once he stops laughing, though, the said Scot might reflect that Herzog actually doesn’t do too bad a job of restaging Rossinian conventions, and that what can seem a very long opera moves with verve and despatch.

Muti, of course, is also responsible, his warm but cracklingly theatrical reading familiar from his Philips CD recording, also drawn from these performances. And his cast, if not ideal, manage their spectacularly demanding parts very acceptably.

June Anderson, despite a resemblance to Sutherland, is less charismatic but technically accomplished and a much better actress, carrying off her big moments from the opening scena to ‘Tanti affeti’ with appropriate panache and pathos. Uberto, the disguised King James, and his Highland rival Rodrigo, are two of Rossini’s most fiendish tenor roles. Chris Merritt’s Rodrigo disappoints, agile enough but perpetrating some terrible chicken squawks in those stratospheric runs, and cutting a grossly unromantic figure. Rockwell Blake, though equally taxed, copes much more elegantly, with something like a trill, and acts well enough to overcome what appears to be the dead pigeon on his head. Martine Dupuy’s Malcolm similarly triumphs over a pointy-eared headdress clearly borrowed from Janácek, singing with mellow tone and real feeling. Giacomo Surjan’s Douglas is serviceable, the lesser roles capably taken, and after a weedy, lagging start the chorus warm up splendidly to the big ensembles.Unusually for Italy, the video direction is efficient and the TV recording crisp. Altogether this makes a good case for a pretty rare piece at mid-price, a Rossinian bargain even we Scots need not resist.