This performance, deriving from a 1993 staging at the San Francisco Opera, is blessedly free from modern gimmicks. It is set by Maurice Pagano in the original 18th-century milieu with lavish costumes by Thierry Bosquet. Stephen Lawless’s direction, faithfully followed by Peter Maniura’s video direction, also avoids tricks, playing the piece relatively straight as it traces the gentle yet pointed progress of the argument proposed by Strauss and his librettist, Clemens Krauss, with grace and some visual wit. Runnicles’s sympathetic conducting catches all the valedictory nature of Strauss’s writing in his carefully paced, affectionate reading.

Kiri Te Kanawa glides through the central role of the Countess with a nice balance between dignity, humour and passion. She inflects her music with shimmering, silvery tone while not making as much of the text as some German-speaking sopranos of the past. David Kuebler is an ardent, bright eyed Flamand, Simon Keenlyside a quizzical, lyrical Olivier. Håkan Hagegård catches the right touch of puppy-like ardour the Count has for Clairon, taken here with her customary flair, in one of her last performances before her untimely death, by Tatiana Troyanos. Braun is a dramatically experienced but rather sub-fusc La Roche and Sénéchal revels in the cameo role of the prompter, Monsieur Taupe. John Steane lamented the absence of subtitles when reviewing the VHS issue; happily they are present here.