With some fine recordings of Verdi’s fifth opera already in the catalogue, this new release from the Austrian Radio archives faces stiff competition. But it doesn’t do much to refute the standard view that Verdi voices aren’t what they used to be – or at least weren’t in December 1998, when this performance was recorded. Certainly, as Elvira and Ernani, Michèle Crider and Neil Shicoff cannot match Leontyne Price and Carlo Bergonzi on Thomas Schippers’s vivid 1968 RCA studio account, or Freni and a Domingo in his prime on Muti’s thrilling live 1984 La Scala recording for EMI. Further disadvantages come in smooth recorded sound that works against the score’s punchy textures, the stage noises, an occasionally audible prompter and extended applause between numbers. The performance, unlike Muti’s, has also been liberally cut.

The advantages are less clear but chief among them are the classy playing of the Vienna orchestra and conducting from Seiji Ozawa – hardly a name to associate with Verdi – that, despite feeling a little stately and indulgent towards the singers early on, builds in passion and momentum as the opera progresses. There’s also some pleasure to be had from Carlos Álvarez’s Don Carlo: the Spanish baritone’s rich, oaky voice conveys nobility well, if somewhat unstintingly. There are touching moments from Roberto Scandiuzzi’s Silva, too, which make up for some woolliness in his bass.

Crider is not the first Elvira to have difficulty hauling a sizeable voice around the part’s more elaborate lines – particularly in the cruel ‘Ernani, Ernani, involami’ – but she has some thrilling moments and a pleasingly creamy basic timbre, even if her vibrato widens alarmingly under pressure. Opposite her, Shicoff is admirably secure and reliable, but there’s very little to enjoy in the tight, monochrome timbre and lack of elegant Verdian line. Although this was clearly a good night in the theatre, I fear this record of it will ultimately be of only limited appeal.